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Top 5 historical adventures for kids, chosen by bestselling writer MG Leonard

Historical fiction to allow young minds to join the dots between past and present

MG Leonard, the award-winning author of Beetle Boy, selects adventures that take curious young minds back to the past.

Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce 

This is the first book I ever read that had time travel in it. When the clock strikes 13 Tom finds himself in Victorian times where he befriends a girl called Hatty. 

Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll 

Set in 1941 during the blitz of the Second World War, Olive and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to a lighthouse in Devon after their older sister, Sukie, goes missing. This book powerfully evokes the period and touches on complex subjects such as political refugees. 

Asterix the Gaul by René Goscinny, illustrated by Albert Uderzo

When I first read Asterix, I was too young to get all of the jokes, nevertheless I loved it. It is an entertaining introduction to Julius Caesar’s Rome and the brutality of colonisation. 

Black Powder by Ally Sherrick 

It’s 1605, James I is King. Tom is travelling to London, to try and save his father from hanging, when he meets an intriguing man calling himself the Falcon and agrees to be a part of the gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament.  

Viking Boy by Tony Bradman 

An action-packed adventure, rich with research and Norse mythology. Gunnar’s father, a Viking chieftain, is killed when his home is raided and burned down. Gunnar sets out on an epic quest for revenge. This story is stuffed with weapons, battles, a sea voyage and Viking lore.

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Hunt for the Golden Scarabby MG Leonard is out now (Pan Macmillan, £7.99).You can buy these titles from the Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support the Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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