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Topic: History

Best children’s books about the First World War 

Explore the history of World War 1, from tanks and trenches to memorials and medals. We’ve put together a list of the best children’s books to learn about life during World War 1 – both on the home front and on the battlefields.

Chapter book

Kathleen Fidler’s classic story is set in the ancient Stone Age village of Skara Brae on Orkney. This is a fascinating and vividly portrayed story of life nearly 3,000 years ago.

Kali and Brockan are in trouble. They have been using their stone axes to chip limpets off the rocks, but they’ve gone too far out and find themselves trapped by the tides. Then, an unexpected rescuer appears, a strange boy in a strange boat, carrying a strangely sharp axe of a type they have never seen before.

Conflict arises as the village of Skara must decide what to do with the new ideas and practices that the boy brings. As a deadly storm threatens, the very survival of the village is in doubt.

Step back into the Stone Age and learn about the daily life and rituals of the ancient village of Skara Brae in this compelling, fictional account of the famous Orkney settlement. Vivid descriptions and accurate historical details bring the village to life and make this an ideal choice for those studying the Stone Age curriculum.

Chapter bookDyslexia-friendly

A tense Seth is waiting to hear if his mum’s got the ‘all-clear’. But instead of relaxing in Cornwall, Seth is haunted by visions. Heads on spikes – bloodied and rotten, eyes pecked out – surrounding an Iron Age hill fort to keep intruders away. When Seth meets two football-crazy brothers from Aleppo their stories offer him a new sense of courage. Can he look death in the face and restore calm to the present? Exciting finale to the Defenders trilogy.

Picturebook

Travel 20,000 years into the past and discover what life as a caveman was like in this prehistoric picture book by a prodigiously talented artist.

One day a little boy is walking along when he trips, stumbles and falls … into the Stone Age! He meets a girl his own age and her tribe, and learns all about their way of life. He watches them make tools, clothes and weapons. He sees how they hunt, fish, cook, celebrate – and even how they paint on the walls of caves. But when a furious cave bear attacks, he wakes up back in his own time where everyone tells him it was only a dream. But was it?

Non-fiction

Hear all about the Stone Age from the great storyteller Sparrow – history like it’s never been told before!

Join Marcia Williams on a journey to the Stone Age. Meet the people of Clan Woolly as they learn how to make fire, invent stone tools and turn wild wolves into tame dogs!

Packed with jokes, comic illustrations and fascinating facts, this hugely entertaining fictional biography will make you look at the Stone Age in a whole new light!

Picturebook

Does your woolly mammoth need a wash? It’s not a very easy thing to do… Find out exactly how to wash your mammoth in this hilarious instruction manual – just remember don’t get any soap in its eyes or it might escape up a tree!

Chapter book

A boy. A wolf. A legend for all time. The first book in the internationally bestselling WOLF BROTHER (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness) series by renowned author Michelle Paver.

Thousands of years ago, a powerful and malevolent force conjured a demon: a demon so evil that it could only be contained in the body of a ferocious bear, a demon determined to destroy the world. Only one boy can stop it …

Twelve-year-old Torak sees his father murdered by the bear. With his dying breath, he asks his son to make him a promise. Alone, wounded, terrified and on the run, Torak must now lead the bear to the Mountain of the World Spirit – a mountain that no one has ever found before. But can Torak keep his promise?

A terrifying quest commences in a world of wolves, tree spirits and Hidden People, a world in which trusting a friend means risking your life.

Chapter book

When Charlie’s longed-for brother is born with a serious heart condition, Charlie’s world is turned upside down. Upset and afraid, Charlie flees the hospital and makes for the ancient forest on the edge of town. There Charlie finds a boy floating face-down in the stream, injured, but alive. But when Charlie sets off back to the hospital to fetch help, it seems the forest has changed. It’s become a place as strange and wild as the boy dressed in deerskins. For Charlie has unwittingly fled into the Stone Age, with no way to help the boy or return to the present day. Or is there?

What follows is a wild, big-hearted adventure as Charlie and the Stone Age boy set out together to find what they have lost – their courage, their hope, their family and their way home.

Fans of Piers Torday and Stig of the Dump will love this wild, wise and heartfelt debut adventure.

Non-fiction

Why was this amazing monument erected? How did our Stone-Age ancestors bring such massive stones to the site from so far away? How did they raise the enormous stones to their upright positions? What was Stonehenge used for, and who lived around the site? This is the incredible true story of this awe-inspiring monument – one of the greatest ancient sites in the world and a World Heritage Site. This fascinating picture information book provides all the facts about the most important prehistoric monument in Britain.

Picturebook

In 1994, the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc was discovered, filled with the oldest known drawings in existence at that time, made 30,000 years ago. In that same cave, prehistoric footprints were discovered: those of an 8-year-old child and a wolf. From these astonishing facts, THE FIRST DRAWING was born.

In this beautiful picture book, Caldecott Medal-winning author/illustrator Mordicai Gerstein imagines one possible way drawing was invented. The young boy that stars in this story has such a vivid imagination that he sees images everywhere – clouds, stones and smoke look like animals to him. His parents, however, don’t share his enthusiasm and wish he would be more down to earth. However the boy cannot contain his enthusiasm and one night grabs a smoky stick and “traces” the image he sees on a cave wall. Lo and behold: the world’s first drawing.

The First Drawing is a story sure to inspire any artist, young or old, as well as anyone with a dream to do something new and different.

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