Book list
Books set in the past
Did you ever wish you could travel back in time? Here's how to do it, from the safety of your own armchair!
Books for older readers
Highway Robbery by Kate Thompson
A tale of highway robbery, but not necessarily the obvious kind.
Tom Fletcher and the Angel of Death by Sarah Matthias
Year 1220, Tom Fletcher, reluctant chief novice at Saint Wilfred's monastery, turns detective and solves horrifying murder mystery.
The Secret of the Crocodiles by Karen Wallace
Lady Violet, good at being in the right place at the right time. Edwardian sleuth with modern day attitude.
Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean
Noah's Ark - what it was really like on board.
The House of Windjammer by V A Richardson
Seventeenth century Dutch trading family face ruin - unless Adam can take up the burden of leadership.
The Fire-Eaters by David Almond
Another beautiful hymn to humanity from David Almond.
Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan
Edinburgh 1822. To overcome the loss of his mother Robbie must face up to some hard truths about medical research.
Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
Loyalty and treachery among warring Japanese clans.
Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
America in the Depression. Bud on the road, searching for his father.
Stop the Train by Geraldine McCaughrean
There's no point settling a township in the middle of the desert if the train won't stop at your station . . .
Daisy Chain War by Joan O'Neill
Growing up pains in Ireland during the Second World War.
The Grave by James Heneghan
He didn't intend to stumble into the great Irish potato famine of 1847, butTom can help the Monaghan family survive. What the Monaghan family can do for him, though, is far more precious . . .
Remembrance by Theresa Breslin
A love story and a horror story, beautifully told, about life and death during the Great War.
Arthur: The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland
It is 1199. Thirteen-year-old Arthur de Caldicot waits to hear whether his father will arrange for him to be a squire and a knight. And meanwhile, his father's old friend, Merlin, gives him a precious piece of stone - a seeingstone.
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
You need a lot of luck to survive the accident of birth in the eighteenth century, especially if you are born into poverty, or illegitimate, or if your path crosses that of Otis Gardiner, Coram man, trader in babies, blackmail and despair . . .
Jack Holborn by Leon Garfield
Jack Holborn stows away aboard the Charming Molly and falls into the hands of a pirate crew.
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Away from his deprived and brutal background in London, Willie Beech is thrown a lifeline when he is evacuated to the country.
I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
The memoir of Elli Friedman, who recounts what it was like to be one of the few teenage inmates of Auschwitz.
Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter
A tale of two boys in Hitler's Germany - one boy is German, the other is a German Jew.
The Machine-Gunners by Robert Westall
Children capture a German machine-gun, but their dream of defending their fortress against the German invasion turns into a nightmare.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Classic tale of treasure and treachery as Jim Hawkins sets sail in the Hispaniola. But what use is a treasure map and an honest heart if your adversary is the cunning Long John Silver?
Troy by Adele Geras
I would never have thought that old story of the wooden horse could be so nerve-wracking.
The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
It's one thing to live and love on the other side of the time tube, but if a bloody battle develops between the two sides where will Andrea's loyalties lie?
The Kin by Peter Dickinson
Clever creatures, homo sapiens. Will they make a go of it? They are on the knife edge of survival.
Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess
Serious retelling of a Viking saga set in a London of the future. Bloodcurdling.