| “ | She's as close to royalty as we peculiars have. They tried for fifty years to elect her leader of the Council of Ymbrynes, but she would never give up teaching at the academy she and Miss Bunting founded. Today there's not an ymbryne worth her wings who didn't pass under Miss Avocet's tutelage at one time, myself included! | ” |
Esmerelda Avocet was an ymbryne who lived for an undetermined amount of time. She and Miss Bunting had a loop together in Derbyshire on Saint Swithin's Day of 1867. Her loop was not just a typical haven for peculiars, but an academy for ymbrynes. The youngest student she ever took on was Alma LeFay Peregrine.
Biography[]
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children[]
After her loop is attacked wights and hollowgasts she is forced to flee. She decides to fly to Miss Peregrine's loop to warn her, since she was one of the few who Miss Avocet had heard hadn't been attacked yet. Luckily for her the loop hadn't been raided, and the inhabitants were able to start taking precautions to defend their loop.
Miss Avocet is distraught when she arrives at Miss Peregrine's, since she knew that her coworker had been abducted and she was unsure about any of her pupils. It is assumed that they were captured since they would be a good bargaining chip, but they were not named amongst the captured peculiars later in the series. Two of her long term students, Francesca and Sigrid, survive the attack on the school, though it is unknown how they were able to do it.
Though Miss Avocet is able to warn Miss Peregrine of the wights causing problems near her loop, they do not immediately flee, since the peculiars all thought they had the home advantage since most of them had been there for seventy years. Unfortunately, both Miss Avocet and Miss Peregrine are captured after Bronwyn, Enoch, Emma, and Jacob decide to go question the late Martin Pagett about what he had seen the night he was attacked by a hollow. Both ymbrynes are shipped to Devil's Acre.
Library of Souls[]
Miss Avocet is quite happy when Jacob and Emma arrive to help the ymbrynes, though she is scared when Jacob arrives with twelve hollows. She takes part in the battle between the wights, twelve ymbrynes, peculiar children, and Jacob's twelve captured hollows.
Almost immediately after the battle wraps up, she is captured by Myron and Caul and taken into the Library of Souls, which had been closed for a millennium to prevent souls from being stolen. After helping others escape, she and the other eleven ymbrynes perform the emergency shut down of the loop, and is barely able to escape from the loop. Because of the procedure her internal clock was reset, preventing her from aging forward if she ever left. She almost instantly jumps into helping rebuild the loop.
The Conference of the Birds[]
Jacob and his friends go to meet Miss Avocet after Horace discovers that she knows of the Prophecy of the Seven and its origins. She tells them the story of Bob the Revelator, and introduces Francesca, who reads out a translation of the prophecy. After, she tells them more about Noor Pradesh's history, adding that she was wondering when she might see Noor again. She later agrees with Francesca that Noor had gone through a memory wipe; a small one to keep Noor safe. She tries to stand up quickly, accidentally pinching a back muscle. Afterwards, she summons Reggie Breedlove to try restoring some of Noor's memories.
After Jacob, Enoch and Emma return from finding Ellery, Horace mentions that Miss Avocet and her team have been digging more deeply into the Apocryphon. She thinks that a certain footnote that they just discovered refers to the wights.
The Desolations of Devil's Acre[]
With Miss Peregrine, Miss Avocet listens to Jacob and Noor's story of Caul's return, and reveals that she knew V was an ymbryne. Afterwards, she tells Francesca and Sigrid to call an emergency meeting of the Ymbryne Council, and to escort her to the council chamber.
After the all-Acre meeting, in the aftermath of Jacob and Noor almost getting assassinated, Miss Avocet begins to tell Noor more about the prophecy. She says that although she asked V to accompany Noor to America, she had no idea of the prophecy at the time and didn't know just how important Noor was.
Miss Avocet, along with 11 other ymbrynes, wove together a shield for Devil's Acre to keep out Caul. She passed away from old age after the final battle at dawn, her final words being a quote from Emerson. She, V and Miss Babax were given an ymbryne funeral.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (film)[]
Her loop was attacked by hollowgasts and all of the children were slaughtered. She tried to save them, but she was outnumbered and they put the machine in her loop. She somehow managed to escape and fled to Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. She was found by Jake and Emma in the Cairn Tunnel, hurt and unable to turn back to human form. She was brought back to Miss Peregrine and nursed back to health. When Miss Peregrine went with Mr. Barron, Miss Avocet took charge and led the children. She was later killed by Malthus.
Description[]
Appearance[]
She is described to be elderly and frail, and has rheumy eyes. In later books, she needs the use of a wheelchair. She has a monocle that hangs from a thin chain around her neck.
In the movie, she has the looks of being elderly and having white hair with streaks of black to represent her bird. She wears a gray skirt with a gray blouse, and also has a pair of spectacles.
Personality[]
Miss Avocet is a serious woman, to the point shrugging is oddly casual when she does it.
Peculiarity[]
She is an ymbryne, which gives her the power to manipulate time and turn into a avocet.
Relationships[]
Miss Peregrine[]
Miss Peregrine was one of Miss Avocet's students, and their relationship is said to be very close. Miss Avocet traveled to Miss Peregrine's loop to warn her about the wights and hollowgasts when loops was raided after her wards were killed. Miss Peregrine sees her perhaps as a maternal figure, and looks up to her, though Miss Avocet's direct feelings towards Miss Peregrine are unknown.
Trivia[]
- Miss Avocet had a special interest in lunacy, divination, and automatic writing.
Gallery[]
