Please note that we have done our best to include publications whose content we believe would be acceptable to most parents and educators. People’s idea of suitability varies, so, if you have any concerns, we suggest that you check for yourselves. Although we have read many of these books ourselves, we do add recommendations from others so we cannot be certain that nothing inappropriate has crept in. Please tell us if you feel that anything that we have included should be removed.
The suggested ages should be treated as being a very rough guide only. Children’s reading ability and interest in particular content varies considerably.
Not all of these books are currently in print but we hope that they will be available from second hand outlets or libraries. We have not added publishers as many of these titles have been reissued under different imprints.
We welcome suggestions of other books to add to this list.
5-7 year olds
The Secret Diary of Thomas Snoop Tudor Boy Spy (Philip Ardagh)
The Baker’s Boy and the Great Fire of London (Tom and Tony Bradman)
Tudor Tales (series) (Terry Deary)
The Great Fire: a city in flames (Ann Turnbull)
The Gunpowder Plot: a time for treason (Ann Turnbull)
Plague: a cross on the door (Ann Turnbull)
8-11 year olds
The Burning (Nazam Anhar)
The Lady Grace Mysteries (series) (Grace Cavendish)
King of Shadows (Susan Cooper)
The Bassumtyte Treasure (Jane Louise Curry)
The Tudor Chronicles (series) (Terry Deary)
The Players’ Boy and The Players and the Rebel (Antonia Forest)
Ghost Knight (Cornelia Funke)
The Time Travelling Cat and the Tudor Treasures (Julia Jarman)
Children of the New Forest (Frederick Marryat)
The Great Plague: a London girl’s diary 1665–1666 (Pamela Oldfield)
The Queen’s Token (Pamela Oldfield)
Usborne Elizabethan Mysteries (series) (John Pilkington)
Here comes a Candle to Light you to Bed (Maggie Prince)
The Girl who Drew Butterflies (Joyce Sidman)
The Armourer’s House (Rosemary Sutcliff)
Diver’s Daughter (Patrice Lawrence)
Cue for Treason (Geoffrey Trease)
Gunner’s Boy (Ann Turnbull)
A Traveller in Time (Alison Uttley)
The Grove of Green Holly (Barbara Willard)
Age 12 +
Campion Towers (John and Patrica Beatty)
Will Sparrow’s Road (Karen Cushman)
Croatoan: birth place of America (Scott Dawson)
Stars of Fortune (Cynthia Harnett)
The Wool Pack (Cynthia Harnett)
Will at the Tower: Shakespeare’s secret seventeenth year (Pete Hartley)
Wicked Girls: a novel of the Salem witch trials (Stephanie Hemphill)
The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose (Eliza Hooper)
At the House of the Magician (series) (Mary Hooper)
You Never knew her as I did (Mollie Hunter)
The Sealed Knot (Stuart Lowrie)
Jepp, who Defied the Stars (Katherine Marsh)
Raider’s Tide (Maggie Prince)
Witch Child (Celia Rees)
The Blackthorn Key (Kevin Sands)
Brother Dusty Feet (Rosemary Sutcliff)
The Hawk Ronald Welch
Mantlemas (series) (Barbara Willard)
Swords and Spindles Living History 