Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Webpicks

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 05 October 2016 > Webpicks


Tim Burton's latest film, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, is based on the best selling American novel by Ransom Riggs. The overriding message of the story is one that fits well into any classroom full of teenagers: be different, don't feel you have to conform to artificial norms, and respect others for their differences.

Ransom Riggs is a filmmaker as well as a novelist, and he made a trailer for the book. It would be interesting to contrast the book and film trailers. (Oddly, for a book set in Wales and written and filmed by Americans, both Riggs and Burton chose different manor houses in Belgium as the titular Home.)

Tim Burton talks about the film here — it's understandable from B1 level.

Be Peculiar
This video entitled "Peculiar Redefined" features Christine O'Connell, an artist and baker who revels in her peculiarity. Her scary cakes fit well with a Halloween theme and should get a good reaction in class.

The closing quote should make for a good debate topic, "Sometimes the things that make you strange or make you different can completely make your life amazing later on. So If there is something about you that's strange, explore it."

What's Happening Here?
Some of the photos that illustrate the book are borrowed from collectors like Robert E. Jackson, whose pictures were exhibited in a 2007 show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The online catalogue for the exhibition provides some very intriguing photos that would be great for an expression activity.