“It’s strange, what the mind can digest and what it resists.”

From Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children: A Map of Days.

Since Jacob Portman and his friends practically saved the peculiar (special abilities and/or powers) world in the Library of Souls, he returned home in an attempt to lead a normal life.  However, when his parents try to have him committed to a mental institution, the only thing that saves him is the arrival of the Ymbryne Miss Peregrine and her group of students in modern day Florida.  After the time-and-memory-controlling Miss Peregrine stops Jake’s parents from sending him away, she informs him that she needs him to provide the other children (who have survived the past few decades by hiding in past time loops) “normal lessons” so that when they venture into modern America, they won’t stand out.  Since Jake’s Peculiarity is seeing and controlling Hollows (Peculiar-eating monsters) and most of the Hollows were wiped out after his last adventure, Jake is desperate for a sense of purpose, especially now that he is back with his friends.  When a discovery connects Jake with one of his deceased grandfather’s acquaintances, Jake jumps at the chance to pick up where his grandfather left off and travel to New York to save a Peculiar teenager.  As he and his friends sneak off on their mission, it quickly becomes clear that Peculiar life in America is far different (and more dangerous) than they ever could have anticipated.

This fourth book in the series opens immediately where the previous book ended, and it uses that momentum to carry the story.  The action is intensified in the second half of the book.  The pictures, are again, the real binding for the story, an anchor point for the reader’s imagination to take in the rest of the story.  A Map of Days is a fantastic read and a fascinating change to the series.