Claim: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was based on snapshots.

Miss Peregrine 's Home for Peculiar Children is a dark fantasy debut novel by American author Ransom Riggs . It is a story of a boy who , following a horrific family tragedy , follows clues that take him to an abandoned children 's home on a Welsh island . The story is told through a combination of narrative and vernacular photographs from the personal archives of collectors listed by the author .   This young adult book was originally intended to be a picture book featuring photographs Riggs had collected , but on the advice of an editor at Quirk Books , he used the photographs as a guide from which to put together a narrative . Riggs was a collector of photographs , but needed more for his novel . He met Leonard Lightfoot , a well-known collector at the Rose Bowl Flea Market , and was introduced to other collectors . The result was a story about a boy who follows clues from his grandfather 's old photographs which lead him on an adventure that takes him to a large abandoned orphanage on Cairnholm , a Welsh island .   The book has been a New York Times best seller . It reached the # 1 spot on the Children 's Chapter Books list on April 29 , 2012 , after being on the list for 45 weeks , remaining there until 20 May , when it dropped to the fourth spot on the list . Critics have generally praised the book for creative use of vintage photographs as well as good characterisation and settings .