Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My awesome husband got me this book for Christmas, and it did not disappoint. This book is about a boy name Jacob. His grandfather has quite the collection of strange photographs (see levitating girl on the front cover) that he shares with Jacob (though he doesn't believe them to be real). When his grandfather dies mysteriously, Jacob decides to go learn more about the island where his grandpa spent much of his childhood.

On this island, Jacob finds a portal to the past, and he is transported to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Here, he meets the various people from his grandpa's photographs.

I won't say anything else as I don't want to spoil it for you. It's another great read with a great ending!

Riggs, Ransom. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books, 2011.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman

Everlost is book one of Shusterman's Skinjacker Trilogy. I'd never heard of this series before, but a few students said that if I liked the Hunger Games (who doesn't?), I'd like this. They were right.

This book opens with a tragic car accident that ends the lives of two teenagers. Instead of dying, they find themselves in Everlost, a purgatory sort of in-between world. Allie and Nick are not alive, but they haven't "gone towards the light" either. They find that this world has its challenges and antagonists, too, as they discover more about the Sky Witch and The McGill.

This is a fun, fast read, and I couldn't wait to buy book two.

Shusterman, Neal. Everlost. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006.