[BOOK 1 BEGUN] Book Club

The book begins by describing the protagonist's grandfather, Abraham Portman. Jacob grew up listening to his stories, of the wars he fought in and the childhood he led. The stories of his childhood were completely fantastic, complete with a bird that protected him from monsters on an island with other children that had special powers, including levitation, super-strength, and two mouths. One day, after being mocked at school for believing in these stories, he told his grandfather that he no longer believed and it was immediately dropped. His father later explained that Grandfather Portman's real childhood was incredibly sad, and that was why he made up the stories - he was the only member of his family that escaped Poland during World War II, at 12, while the rest of his family died and he stayed on an island for Jewish children that escaped.​

The chapter opens on Jacob working the job that he's trying to get fired from, at Smart Aid. He can't get fired, however, because he is set to inherit a large chunk of the company as his family owns it; he also can't quit because it's family tradition to work at Smart Aid before inheriting it. While screwing up his job, he gets a phone call from his grandfather, who is getting old and paranoid. He's off his medication and is ranting about the monsters from his childhood chasing him, trying to find the key to his gun cabinet that had been long hidden by Jacob's father. Jacob agrees to leave work and see him, along with his friend Ricky.

When they arrive at Grandfather Portman's house, the entire thing is a mess and the man himself is missing; the only clues are a torn open screen door and a lit flashlight in the backyard. Jacob takes the flashlight and moves into the woods behind his grandfather's house, following a hunch and eventually finding him bloodied with massive cuts in his stomach. With his dying breath, his grandfather makes him promise to "go to the island" and leaves him a cryptic code - "Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man's grave. September third, 1940. Emerson—the letter. Tell them what happened, Yakob." He passes and Jacob feels the presence of something else in the woods - he swings the flashlight around and catches a glimpse of what looks like one of the monsters from his grandfather's stories, with tentacles spewing from its mouth and inky black eyes. He faints as Ricky arrives.​

Jacob, believing that his grandfather was killed by the very real monsters of his childhood, blames himself for not believing and causing his death. He refuses to sleep in rooms with windows for months, and wakes up nightly screaming. He pushes away Ricky, his only friend, who believes as the police do that his grandfather was killed by a pack of feral dogs. After visiting a psychiatrist, he is finally given a reason for seeing the monsters - an acute stress reaction. He is convinced of the truth of this diagnosis, but still has the nightmares and fears that medication couldn't kill.

He begins to research what the last words of his grandfather mean, although he partially suspects that they mean nothing - first he looks for people named Emerson in his grandpa's retirement community, then the letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, both dead ends. He helps go through his grandfather's old things in his house and agrees to throw out the old pictures of the children with 'special powers', which he sees as cheap photo manipulation tricks now. His parents throw him a "surprise" 16th birthday party, where he receives a gift found by his aunt in his grandfather's house - a book of poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson, with a written dedication inside it to Jacob. "To Jacob Magellan Portman, and the worlds he has yet to discover -" As he holds it, a letter drops out that speaks about the island, the children still there and the headmistress, Alma LeFay Peregrine. Jacob convinces his parents to let him visit the island with his father, in the UK, and they leave at the start of summer.​