Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Prologue Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
Every time he described [the monsters] he'd toss in some lurid new detail: they stank like putrefying trash; they were invisible except for their shadows; a pack of squirming tentacles lurked inside their mouths […]. (Prologue.6)
Either Grandpa watches a little too much anime, he's crazy, or he's telling the truth about scary supernatural creatures. It takes a few pages for Jacob (and us) to realize it, but Grandpa is telling the truth—monsters are out there.
Quote 2
"There was a girl who could fly, a boy who had bees living inside him, a brother and sister who could lift boulders over their heads." (Prologue.15)
It's easy to dismiss these stories as fairy tales (as Jacob later does), but his grandfather catches him at just the right age to convince him that they're real, if only temporarily.
Quote 3
The girl's feet weren't touching the ground. But she wasn't jumping—she seemed to be floating in the air. My jaw fell open. (Prologue.27)
These photos are especially surprising to Jacob because they're Grandpa's. If he saw them online, he's just assume they were computer altered, but at this point, Grandpa is still a trusted source in the story.
Quote 4
My grandfather was the only member of his family to escape Poland before the Second World War broke out. (Prologue.47)
It's sad that Jacob's grandfather had to leave his home at such a young age, and it's even sadder that he could never return. Jacob will have to face the same decision at the end of the book.
Quote 5
I thought about it, looking at the pictures and then at my grandfather, his face so earnest and open. What reason would he have to lie? (Prologue.38)
At this point, Jacob does believe Grandpa—which is great because Grandpa isn't lying to him. But when kids make fun of Jacob at school for believing these stories, Jacob changes his mind. It's not Grandpa who betrays Jacob at all, but the other way around.
Quote 6
I told [Grandpa] that a made-up story and a fairy tale were the same thing, and that fairy tales were for pants-wetting babies, and that I knew his photos and stories were fakes. I expected him to get mad or put up a fight, but instead he just said, "Okay." (Prologue.45)
Or maybe Grandpa does betray Jacob here. Why doesn't he try harder to convince him?
Quote 7
My dad explained it to me: Grandpa had told him some of the same stories when he was a kid, and they weren't lies, exactly, but exaggerated version of the truth. (Prologue. 46)
Maybe Grandpa was upset because his own son kind of betrayed him years ago by losing trust in him.
Quote 8
"He doesn't look strong," I said, studying the boy's skinny arms. (Prologue.32)
Many of the peculiar children look perfectly normal, like this kid. Some, however, don't, like Millard the invisible boy and the girl with a mouth in the back of her head.
Quote 9
At home I made my ambitions known by parading around with a cardboard tube held to my eye, shouting, "Land ho!" (Prologue.3)
Early on, Jacob knows he wants to be an explorer. It's kind of sad when his own parents discourage him from pursuing his true identity.
Quote 10
One day my mother sat me down and explained that I couldn't become an explorer because everything in the world had already been discovered. (Prologue.3)
Jacob's mother stifles his imagination by telling him this, and it makes him miserable and depressed to be in the real world. As we later learn, there are still parts of the world to be discovered, at least for the majority of normal humankind.
Quote 11
Growing up, Grandpa Portman was the most fascinating person I knew. (Prologue.2)
Ignore the misplaced modifier here. Jacob is talking about how when he was growing up, Grandpa Portman was fascinating. Or maybe he means that Grandpa Portman was fascinating when he was growing up, too.
Quote 12
When I was six I decided that my only chance of having a life half as exciting as Grandpa Portman's was to become an explorer. (Prologue.3)
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Young Jacob wants to pretty much be his grandpa, so he tries to imitate his adventurous ways.