Ransom Riggs will launch a new series of young adult fantasy novels later this year, the Associated Press reports.
Dutton Books for Young Readers will publish Riggs’ Sunderworld, Vol. I: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry this summer. The novel follows Leopold, a Los Angeles teenager who becomes obsessed with a 1990s children’s fantasy television series that his late mother adored. He discovers that the show is more real than he could have ever imagined.
Riggs is best known for his 2011 debut novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which incorporated found photography to tell the story of a 15-year-old boy who discovers the remains of a bizarre children’s home on a Welsh island off the coast of Wales. The novel spawned several sequels, including Hollow City and A Map of Days, and was adapted into a 2016 film directed by Tim Burton and starring Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, and Allison Janney.
In a statement, Riggs said, “I’ve always been drawn to portal fantasies in fiction. They feel like invitations to optimistic worlds where, ultimately, joy is possible, if only you can find the key. We’re living through some very heavy, very dark times—we have been for a while—and this story is meant to be an escape—and a respite from darkness.”
Sunderworld, Vol. I: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry is slated for publication on Aug. 27.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
