After ten years, the time to say good-bye to the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children book series is right around the corner as the final book is set to release on February 23, 2021. Author Ransom Riggs announced the final book near the end of October 2020. He claimed it was many years in the making.

In his statement, he says, “I spent a decade in this world, building and tending to these characters, and it’s a bittersweet thing to finally bid them goodbye. I’m going to miss them. But I’ve tried to give them the send-off that they, and the readers who’ve stayed with me all this time, deserve.” Fans of the series are thrilled for the next book, but are also dreading the end to such a beloved story.

 Riggs’s original concept for his book was to publish it as a picture book with his collection of vintage and obscure pictures. Instead, an editor at Quirk encouraged him to develop a story inspired by the pictures he had. Taking the advice, Riggs created Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Quirk published the book on June 7, 2011. The book follows Jacob Portman as he follows clues left by his late grandfather Abe and discovers a rather peculiar world.

Once discovered, Jacob realizes the silly stories his grandfather once told him were actually stories of the peculiar world. In this loop, a name for the time-stamp peculiar lives in a world where the same day constantly repeats, where his grandfather once lived in this world and he meets the children of Miss Peregrine’s home: Olive Abroholos Elephanta, a levitating little girl; Claire Densmore, a young girl with a mouth in the back of her head; Enoch O’Connor, a boy who can temporarily raise the dead; Hugh Apiston, a boy with bees living in his stomach; Fiona Frauenfeld, a girl with the ability to grow plants just by thinking; Millard Nullings, an invisible boy; Bronwyn Bruntley, a girl with nearly superhuman strength; Horace Somnusson, a boy with prophetic dream; and Emma Bloom, a girl who can create fire with her hands. The book goes on to explain much more about this world, such as what hologaust are and who weights are.

The popularity of the book spread quickly. On April 29, 2012, the book reached #1 on the bestsellers list and stayed there for 45 weeks before dropping to #4. Following the first book, Hollow City was published on January 14, 2014. Ransom Riggs continued the series with Library of Souls, Tales of the Peculiar, A Map of Days, The Conference of Birds, and will be completed with Desolation of Devil’s Arce.

Since its publication, the series has sold over 10 million copies and has been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2016, the first book was adapted into a film by Tim Burton starring Asa Butterfield as Jacob. The film also included Eva Green, Samuel Jackson, and Ella Purnell.  The fans of the series were excited to see such a thrilling story come to life, but were let down instead by the changes to the characters and the story Burton made. Despite this, the film did very well and the box office was roughly $296.5 million.

With the announcement of the final book, Desolation of Devils Arce, Ransom Riggs also showed the exclusive preorder items. With nearly all of his book’s pre-orders, there have been exclusive items for the buyer. With this preorder, the phase one preorder got buyers a map of devil’s acre and a custom journal. The second phase includes only the map. In early February, Riggs announced his virtual book tour. In the past, Riggs traveled across the states for his book tours but with COVID-19 putting a halt to any events, the tour went virtual. The event is happening over three nights, with each night having a different guest. The guests include John Green, Eva Chen, and Leigh Bardugo. To attend the event, you have to buy a ticket, and 16 VIP tickets were offered per night. The VIP ticket gives the attendees a 60 second one on one with Author Ransom Riggs. Both VIP and general admission tickets get attendees a signed copy of the book, access to the event with Ransom Riggs, a map of devil’s acre, and a peregrine pendent.

The sixth and final book in the series will be available for in-store purchase on February 23. Any pre-orders will ship after the release or after the tour event, if attending.