Showing titles in Historical Fiction

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story - Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

This uplifting chronicle of a boy’s recovery from blindness is a moving reflection of the ways that friendship can permanently join the lives of two very different people. Master storyteller Theodore Taylor traces the lives of two friends - an American boy and a old West Indian - after they are rescued from a deserted island.

Evie couldn't be angrier with her mother. She's only gone and got married again and has flown off on honeymoon, sending Evie to stay with a godmother she's never even met in an old, creaky house in the middle of nowhere. It is all monumentally unfair. But on the first night, Evie sees a strange, ghostly figure at the window. Spooked, she flees from the room, feeling oddly disembodied as she does so. Out in the corridor, it's 1814, and Evie finds herself dressed as a housemaid.

Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother, Jamie, is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—sneaking out to join him. So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie.

Annabelle has lived in Wolf Hollow all her life: a quiet place still scarred by two world wars. But when cruel, manipulative Betty arrives in town, Annabelle's calm world is shattered along with everything she's ever known about right and wrong. When Betty accuses gentle loner Toby - a traumatised ex-soldier - of a terrible act, Annabelle knows he's innocent. Then Betty disappears.... Now Annabelle must protect Toby from the spiralling accusations and hysteria until she can prove to Wolf Hollow what really happened to Betty.

No one would accuse 11-year-old Caddie Woodlawn of being dainty and ladylike. In spite of her mother’s best efforts, Caddie is as wild as the wind, playing freely and rambunctiously with her two brothers in the Wisconsin backwoods. There are rafts to build and trees to climb and pranks to play. Caddie especially likes to watch her friend Indian John build birchbark canoes at the river. Every day seems wide with possibility - as wide as the frontier. But living on the edge of civilization has its risks, too....

Margaret Thursday was named after the day she was found on the church steps as a baby. But she isn’t really an orphan – each year a bag of gold coins is left at the church for her keep. When the money suddenly stops, her guardians have no choice but to send her away to an orphanage. The orphanage is worse than they could have imagined. Vowing to protect her new friends, Peter and Horatio, Margaret plans their daring escape...but she’ll have to outwit Matron at every turn.

A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. But just one of the girls has a chance at survival. Arrested by the Gestapo, 'Verity' is given a choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. They’ll get the truth out of her. Only, it won’t be what they expect.

Australian Greek girl Nandi travels to her ancestors’ home in Ithaca, and discovers—through a friendship with an extremely unusual flying fish—the extraordinary story of her great-aunt, Elena; of how she fell in love, in the hardest of times, and how of how she became an unsung hero of World War Two. But Elena has gone missing, and Nandi has to find her. In her search, she will discover that Elena was an even greater hero than she thought—and still is....

Rachel and Hilary are sent to live with their ambitious aunt who runs a stage school, training a troupe of dancing girls. It's heaven for Hilary who loves to perform, but quite the opposite for quiet Rachel. The last thing Rachel wants is to become one of her aunt's Little Wonders—particularly if it means behaving like their irritating show-off of a cousin. A mischievous, fun and moving story about young performers, from the acclaimed author of the classic Ballet Shoes.

It's 1940 and war is underway. In Sheffield, England, a brother and sister set out to solve a mystery, brazenly believing that the air-raid signals are only false alarms. In Dachau, Germany, two boys come up with a bold plan to bring an end to the war and help a Polish prisoner escape. But when the bombs falling on Sheffield become a reality, and the German boys’ plan hurls them unwittingly into the midst of the action, the children’s adventures swiftly become a terrifying fight to survive...

Harriet Walter and Beryl Reid star in this full-cast adaptation of the much-loved children's classic. When spoilt young orphan Mary Lennox is brought back from India to live in her uncle's house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds the blunt ways of the staff at Misselthwaite Manor an unpleasant shock. Bored and miserable, it seems as though life in England will be awful. But Misselthwaite has hidden delights, and when Mary begins to discover them, nothing is the same again.

Luna thinks that an evening at her aunt's butterfly club sounds deathly boring. But it turns out that the meeting, held in the Butterfly Room at the Greenwich Observatory, is not at all as Luna expects. The Butterfly Club is a society with an unusual secret...they use time travel to plunder the future for wonders. Together with her friends, Konstantin and Aidan, and a clockwork cuckoo, Luna boards the Time Train. Luna and her friends travel to 1912 and find themselves aboard a great ship travelling from Southampton to New York...the RMS Titanic.

The adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as they move from their little house on the banks of Plum Creek to the wilderness of the unsettled Dakota Territory. Here Pa works on the new railroad until he finds a homestead claim that is perfect for their new little house. Laura takes her first train ride as she, her sisters, and their mother come out to live with Pa on the shores of Silver Lake. After a lonely winter in the surveyors' house, Pa puts up the first building in what will soon be a brand-new town on the beautiful shores of Silver Lake.

April 1941. Britain is at war, and a secret agency called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up children as spies - because grown-ups always underestimate them. Enter May, Eric and Nuala: courageous, smart, and the Ministry's newest recruits. They have travelled to London for spy training, and are staying on a quiet street close to the Ministry, home to an unlikely collection of people thrown together by the war.

Missing maids, suspicious teachers and a snow storm to die for.... For a fearless girl called Justice Jones, super-smart super-sleuth, it's just the start of a spine-tingling first term at Highbury House Boarding School for the Daughters of Gentlefolk. For fans of Robin Stevens, Katherine Woodfine and Enid Blyton. When Justice's mother dies, her father packs her off to Highbury House Boarding School for the Daughters of Gentlefolk. He's a barrister - specialising in murder trials - and he's just too busy to look after her alone.

It’s 1940, and Joseph has been packed off to stay with Mrs F, a gruff woman with no great fondness for children. To Joseph’s amazement, she owns the rundown city zoo where Joseph meets Adonis, a huge silverback gorilla. Adonis is ferociously strong and dangerous, but Joseph finds he has an affinity with the lonely beast. But when the bombs begin to fall, it is up to Joseph to guard Adonis’ cage should it be damaged by a blast. Will Joseph be ready to pull the trigger if it comes to it?

Johnny Maxwell and his friends have to do something when they find Mrs Tachyon, the local bag lady, semi-conscious in an alley...as long as it's not the kiss of life. But there's more to Mrs Tachyon than a squeaky trolley and a bunch of dubious black bags. Somehow she holds the key to different times, different ears: including the Blackbury Blitz in 1941. Suddenly, now isn't the safe place Johnny once thought it was as he finds himself caught up more and more with then.

When Enola learns of a missing left-handed artist, she uses a series of clever disguises to brave lurking dangers and follow cryptic clues that lead to the young Lady Cecily.

The Second World War has ended, but Henry is fighting his own battles. He misses his father, who died a war hero, and his only distraction is the cinema. But everything is about to change. When Henry develops an old camera film he uncovers a mystery and events spiral until his life resembles the drama of the big screen. Like a bomb waiting to explode, Henry's discovery will shatter his world. A powerful, gripping and truly epic story that won the Costa Children's Book Award 2008.