A gathering light, by Jennifer Donnelly
Mattie Gokey is given a bundle of letters to burn by Grace Brown. When Grace is found drowned the next day in Big Moose Lake, Mattie finds that it is not as easy to burn those letters as she had thought. Contains adult themes
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All quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
Told by a young 'unknown soldier' in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War. Through his eyes we see all the realities of war; under fire, on patrol, waiting in the trenches, at home on leave, and in hospitals and dressing stations. Contains adult themes
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Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks
Set in France and capturing the drama and destruction of First World War era. Stephen, a young Englishman, experiences a traumatic clandestine love affair and then the grim insanity of the Great War. Contains adult themes
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Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
A familiar story to many, but until you've read the book you can't really appreciate the special voice and true feeling Anna Sewell gives to this best loved horse. An essential read for any horse lover.
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Blitz, by Vince Cross
Little does Edie know when she starts writing her diary that the summer is going to become one of air-raid sirens, bombs, leading to the evacuation of herself & her brother to Wales - away from everything she knows and loves
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Bog child, by Siobhan Dowd
Set during the troubles in Northern Ireland, Bog Child follows Fergus as he struggles for his own identity amidst the fear and hatred of a torn country. His brother is on hunger strike, his family are frightened and angry ; he is being blackmailed into carrying packages that could be anything; and throughout it all he hears the voice of the Bog Child; the tiny body he found in the peat. Contains adult themes
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Carrie's War, by Nina Bawden
A young girl is evacuated to Wales during the Second World War.
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Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Isabel and Ruth are slaves in New York, 1776. As the revolutionary war rages around them, they fight to stay alive and together. Subject to terrible cruelty; betrayed and abandoned; unable to find anyone to trust; Isabel is determined to break the chains of bondage and be free. Riveting and heartbreaking - this is a book you won't be able to put down.
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Fallen Grace, by Mary Hooper
Victorian London is brought vividly to life as we follow the unfortunate Grace and her sister from misery to misery. Just as we think she is to be saved, an unscupluous family plot to snatch away her inheritance. It isn't long. however, before our fiesty heroine smells a rat, and starts to unravel the fraud in a race against time.
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Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian
As Britain stands on the brink of WWII, Willie Beech is evacuated to the country. Thomas Oakley is the most unlikely refuge you could imagine - gruff and resentful, he is forced to take on the young evacuee. Together they form a wary bond, that grows into love and trust. Willie begins to flourish; but the day comes when his mother demands that he return home, and his happiness is shattered. A powerful, heart-rending, unforgettable story.
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Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian
Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of WW2. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mum back in London.
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Hitler's canary, by Sandi Toksvig
Based on true-life events during the Second World War, this novel is a funny and gripping account of a childhood spent under occupation and a daring rescue.
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I am David, by Anne Holm
12 year old David has no memory of life before the concentration camp. He doesn't know how to smile, and trust has no meaning. Can he survive, and will he ever be free?
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Kensuke's kingdom, by Michael Morpurgo
Michael's parents buy a yacht and sail around the world. Michael is thrown overboard and washes up on a remote tropical island, where he meets Kensuke.
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Montacute house, by Lucy Jago
The daily struggle to survive in Elizabethan England, surrounded by devastating poverty, superstition and biggotry, makes life almost unbearable for Cess and her mother. Then, on her 13th birthday, she finds a pendant in the hen house - as though someone left it there for her to find. When boys start to go missing, and one turns up dead and horrifically disfigured, everyone suspects witchcraft. William, best friend of Cess, joins the ranks of the missing boys, and Cess is immediately accused of sorcery. Can she rescue William, and clear her name, before it's too late?
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Once, by Morris Gleitzman
Not for the faint hearted, this is the first in a trilogy that will have you laughing and crying - sometimes at the same time. Yes, it's another holocaust story. But if you only ever read one, make it this one. Felix spends almost 4 years in an orphanage, convinced his Jewish Bookseller parents are still alive, and coming back for him. When Nazi soldiers come to burn the nuns' books, Felix escapes from the orphanage to find and save his parents. His perilous journey through Nazi occupied Poland finds him befriending orphan Zelda, and coming into the care of the kindly Barney. All three of these books are very slim, but they really pack a punch.
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Pride and prejudice, by Jane Austen
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the suit of a snobbish gentleman, as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters. Contains adult themes.
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Prisoner of the inquisition, by Theresa Breslin
Zarita is privileged and spoilt; Saulo is reduced to begging. When his father is hanged as a direct result of Zarita's actions Saulo swears revenge. Forced into slavery at sea he eventually meets Christopher Columbus, but never loses sight of his oath. Zarita, consumed by guilt over Saulo's father, undergoes many challenges and hardships that make her into a better person, but will the Inquisition destroy her before Saulo can? Two lives inextricably linked hurtle towards each other for an explosive and shocking conclusion.
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Private Peaceful, by Michael Morpurgo
A poignant story of war and its many life-changing effects on those involved--and about the brutality of the commanding regimes of the First World War and the relentless squalor of trench warfare. Difficult and emotionally draining.
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Revolver, by Marcus Sedgwick
1910, and Sig is alone in the freezing cabin north of the Arctic Circle - alone, that is, except for the frozen corpse of his father. Sig's sister and step-mother have gone for help, but it will be hours before they return, and now a bear of a man has forced his way into the cabin, demanding what Sig's father owed him. The tension rises, and the barely contained violence of Wolff errupts shockingly, forcing Sig to make a choice that will change his life forever. A gripping tale that you won't be able to put down.
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Roll of thunder, hear my cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
The Mississippi of the 1930s is a hard place for a black child to grow up in. Cassie begins to reach a painful understanding of life when she witnesses the hatred and destruction around her, and learns when it is important to fight for principle.
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Rowan the strange, by Julie Hearn
It is the beginning of World War II, and mental illness is seen as something to be frightened and ashamed of. Rowan hears voices - or rather A Voice; and it makes him do things. He didn't mean to scare his sister. He is a gentle boy, who wouldn't hurt a fly; but when The Voice speaks, he is no longer in control of his own actions. Reluctantly, his family take him to an asylum, to take part in an experimental treatment, and Rowan begins a strange journey. Thought provoking, heart wrenching, and funny at times, this is a book you will never forget.
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Sacred hearts, by Sarah Dunant
Serafina is condemned to life in a convent. 16, passionate, and in love she fights her confinement with everything she has. A witty, extravagent glimpse of life in an Italian renaisance convent. Contains adult themes
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Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Keneally
More than a thousand Jews were saved from death in the Holocaust by a womanizing, heavy-drinking, German-Catholic industrialist and member of the Nazi Party, Oskar Schindler. Contains adult themes
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Sharpe's company, by Bernard Cornwell
Sharpe's company are attacked by the French with heavy losses. Sharpe is faced with ruin and to save his honour Sharpe must lead his men to glory in the narrow streets of Fuentes de Oñoro. Contains adult themes.
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Stop the train, by Geraldine McCaughrean
Marooned in the vast Oklahoma prairies, Florence relies completely on the railway line beside which it stands. A bypass threatens to end the settlers' livelihood. Somehow or other, the train has to be stopped
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Tales of terror from the black ship, by Chris Priestley
Exciting and spooky collection of short stories.
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The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier
The night the Nazis come to take their mother away, three children escape in a terrifying scramble across the rooftops. Alone in the chaos of Warsaw, they have to learn to survive on their own.
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The boy in the striped pyjamas, by John Boyne
Although suitable for quite a young age, this is potentially one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. The inevitability of the ending, the innocence of the main character, and the unstoppable pace of the story combine to create a heartwrenching vision of the horror of the holocaust.
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The burning mountain, by L.J. Adlington
AD79 Vesuvius erupts, and Gaius Justinius Aquila struggles to help the citizens of Herculaneum. 1943 Peter Schafer, under-age, joins the German Paratroopers and enters Hell. Vittoria, Italian, steals to keep a ragtag bunch of orphans alive. Present day, Denise and Craig - father killed in war, brother a soldier in Afghanistan, mother working all hours in a local hospital - find themselves alone much of the time. Their neighbours, the Shepherds, struggle with dementia, ill health, and a past that won't stay buried. These worlds race towards each other in a tense, unputdownable, tale of the crushing machinery of war, the heart of the soldier, and the bravery of civilians.
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The butterfly lion, by Michael Morpurgo
Bertie rescues an orphaned white lion cub in the African veldt. They are inseparable until he is sent to a boarding school in England and the lion is sold to a circus. Bertie swears he will find the lion again but the Great War intervenes
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The diary of a young girl, by Anne Frank
A timeless story rediscovered by each new generation, 'The Diary of a Young Girl' stands without peer. For both young readers and adults it continues to bring to life this young woman, who for a time survived the worst horror the modern world had seen.
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The eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff
The ninth legion disappears into the mists of northern Britain. Marcus Aquila embarks on a quest to discover the fate of his father and the legion.
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The fool's girl, by Celia Rees
Illyria's holy relics have been stolen by the malicious Malvolio, and Violetta and Feste will stop at nothing to return them to their rightful place. But they are in great danger, for Malvolio wants nothing more than the death of Violetta. A cat and mouse game of intrige and death leaps through this book, with William Shakespeare becoming inextricably bound to the young adventurers.
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The ghost road, by Pat Barker
Based on a mix of real and imagined characters and events, this book tells the story of Sarah, a young woman working in a munitions factory, and the poet Wilfred Owen. Contains adult themes
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The machine gunners, by Robert Westall
"Some bright kid's got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo". Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best.
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The pig scrolls, by Paul Shipton
Gryllus is a pig. Well, not strictly speaking a pig. He's a man who got turned into a pig, When Odysseus's crew (you remember Odysseus - big bloke, hero, all round clever clogs) got turned into pigs by Circe, Gryllus never got turned back.
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The thieves of Ostia, by Caroline Lawrence
Flavia Gemina is brilliant at finding things, so she solves mysteries. The daughter of a ship's captain living in Ostia in AD 79, she and her three friends try to work out who severed the heads of the watchdogs that guard people's homes.
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To kill a mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Steep yourself in the deep South of the 30's, where Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white girl, and Scout and Jem Finch observe the irrationality of the adult world. A warm and funny book full of truth. Contains adult themes.
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White Fang, by Jack London
Half wolf, half dog, White Fang is the only grey cub in the litter. Brought up by wolves, he is captured, and doomed to die a brutal death in the ring. A tale of survival against the odds.
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Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff - recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.
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