Slip Into These 9 Time-Bending Reads for Kids

Who else loves the idea of travelling through time to another era? Where would you go?

Why wait for a time machine? From fantastical middle-grade to adventurous YA, these 9 great reads will get your little ones slipping into exciting adventures across time.

Running with Ivan by Suzanne Leal

Thirteen-year-old Leo Arnold hates his life. He doesn’t want a new school, a new house or a new family. And he definitely doesn’t want to be sharing a room with his new stepbrother, Cooper. What Leo wants is to be somewhere else, far away. So when he uncovers an old music box and turns the key, he is astonished to find himself in Prague, surrounded by whispers and fears of a second world war. A war that ended decades ago.

Recommended for ages 10+

Buy a copy of Running with Ivan here.

The Travelling Bookshop #1: Mim and the Baffling Bully by Katrina Nannestad, illustrated by Cheryl Orsini

Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy. Now Mim has arrived in a pretty Dutch village where she meets Willemina, a kind and gentle child, who is being bullied by a girl named Gerda. Mim knows they’re here to help Willemina. To change her life. To make her strong and brave and happy. If only Dad would find her the right book. If only he would stop giving everyone else the wrong book!

Recommended for ages 7+

Buy a copy of The Travelling Bookshop #1: Mim and the Baffling Bully here.

The Way to Impossible Island by Sophie Kirtley

Born with a serious heart condition, Dara has been waiting for his Big Operation forever, and this summer it’s finally going to happen. But when his op is postponed, Dara snaps. When will he get to live his real life? Maybe the adventures he dreams of are just silly fantasies. And then he finds a girl hiding in the boat shed. She wears animal skins. She has a real live pet wolf. She is, simply, impossible. Could Mothgirl really be from the Stone Age?

Recommended for ages 8+

Buy a copy of The Way to Impossible Island here.

Seven Wherewithal Way by Samantha-Ellen Bound

Celeste is having the worst summer ever. Her parents are off on an adventure and she’s stuck at Gran’s house with her annoying little sister Esme and under strict instructions to be responsible – or, as Esme says, boring. So when their eccentric cousin Ferd crash-lands a flying bus in the yard, what choice does Celeste have but to follow Ferd back home to Seven Wherewithal Way?

Recommended for ages 10+

Buy a copy of Seven Wherewithal Way here.

The World Between Blinks by Amie Kaufman and Ryan Graudin

Following a map Nana left behind, Jake and Marisol sneak out to a nearby lighthouse – then accidentally slip into another world… The World Between Blinks is a magical place, where all kinds of lost things (and people!) end up. Everywhere they turn, the cousins find real mysteries from history – plus a few they thought were only myths.

Recommended for ages 9+

Buy a copy of The World Between Blinks here.

The Strangeworlds Travel Agency #1 by L.D Lapinski

When 12-year-old Flick Hudson accidentally ends up in the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, she uncovers a fantastic secret: there are hundreds of other worlds just steps away from ours. All you have to do to visit them is jump into the right suitcase. However, the world at the very centre of it all, a city called Five Lights, is in danger. Flick must race against time, travelling through unchartered worlds, and seek a way to fix Five Lights before it collapses into nothingness – and takes our world with it.

Recommended for ages 9+

Buy a copy of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency #1 here.

Heroes of the Secret Underground by Susanne Gervay

Louie lives with her brothers, Bert and Teddy, in a hotel run by their grandparents. It is one of Sydney’s grand old buildings, rich in history… and in secrets. When a lost rose-gold locket is uncovered, it sends Louie and her brothers spinning back in time. Back to a world at war: Budapest in the winter of 1944, where their grandparents are hiding secrets of their own…

Recommended for ages 9+

Buy a copy of Heroes of the Secret Underground here.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1) by Ransom Riggs

Sixteen-year-old Jacob journeys to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. And somehow – impossible though it seems – they may still be alive.

Recommended for ages 13+

Buy a copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children here.

Word Hunters #1: The Curious Dictionary by Nick Earls and Terry Whidborne

Lexi and Al Hunter are twins with almost nothing in common – except their parents and their birthday! When the twins stumble upon an old dictionary their world as they know it changes. They are blasted into history to hunt down the words that threaten to vanish from our past and our present. Their lives and the future of the world are at stake. Can they find a way back home? Or will they be trapped in the past forever?

Recommended for ages 8+

Buy a copy of The Curious Dictionary here.