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Friday, August 5, 2011

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.


Jacob Portman is a well-to-do teen who is traumatized when he witnesses his grandfather die. Jacob is convinced his grandfather's dying words are portents rather than an old man's ramblings or dementia.

Most intriguing of all, however, are the bizarre photographs of apparently real people that illustrate the book. Ransom Riggs, a film maker who also writes photo essays for magazines, inserts photographs of people doing unusal things e.g. levitating in the air or creating balls of fire.

The photographs become part of the fictional world Riggs creates in Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children. Jacob assumes the photographs his grandfather shows him are fake, as most people would. He concludes that his Grandfather's stories of a war-time escape and a home for peculiar children are fairy tales.

After watching his Grandfather die, however, Jacob begins having nightmares and even believes that he can see monsters. Are his Grandfather's stories true? Jacob travels to Wales with his father to find out and that is only the beginning of his adventures.

Ransom Rigg's first novel is a gothic coming-of-age like no other. The otherwordly setting--a dilapidated house on an isolated Welsh island, time loops, and a school for mysterious students--will immediately capture a reader's interest. Marketed for young adults, this novel also will also appeal to adults who are intrigued by supernatural mysteries.

Review by Chantal Walvoord

Scrappy Startups by Melanie Keveles


Scrappy Startups: How 15 Ordinary Women Turned Their Unique Ideas Into Profitable Businesses.

Melanie Keveles profiles fifteen women who started their own businesses from scratch. Nancy Gruver started a media company, New Moon, that lets tween girls write articles for girls in their age group. Bev Halisky started a driving service for the elderly because she saw a need. Many seniors had no one to drive them to their doctor's appointments. Halisky's Canadian-based business has generated several franchises.

Possibly the most impressive business, however, is the one started in a war zone. Sarah Chayes, a journalist for National Public Radio, started an Arghand Cooperative in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Hoping to spur economic development in the area, Sarah started a high-end soap company. She uses native agriculture e.g. pomegranate seeds and pistachios to create natural soaps and then exports them as luxury products. Though Sarah's business is successful, it is also a personal mission.

Scrappy Startups is full of wonderful businesses started by women who did not necesarily have a business background. Many of these businesses were started by women who saw a social need e.g. Cherry Brook Kitchen, 29 Gifts, Eco-Me, Arghand Cooperative. Questions at the end of each chapter may help budding entrepreneurs realize their business dreams.

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