In Ransom Riggs’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the protagonist’s first name is Jacob.
Jacob Portman begins the novel as a sixteen-year-old living in Florida. After a traumatic event involving his grandfather, Abraham, he travels to a Welsh island and investigates the stories and photographs his grandfather left behind. There he discovers a hidden community of children with unusual abilities.
Jacob’s own peculiar ability is connected to the hollowgast creatures that threaten the children. He can see these monsters, a power that makes him especially valuable to Miss Peregrine and her companions. The story combines fantasy with vintage photographs that Riggs incorporated into the narrative.
The title is often shortened informally to Miss Peregrine, but Jacob is the central viewpoint character. The novel was published in 2011 and became the first book in a larger series about Jacob and the peculiar children.