Book reviews: Time travel magic, chaotic families and a sci-fi school

Age 9 plus:

Evie’s Ghost by Helen Peters

Time-slip novels have become a firm favourite with adult readers… and now youngsters can get in on the act with this brilliant story based on a slice of real-life history.

Inspired by a message for help scratched on to the window of an old manor house in Hertfordshire, Helen Peters set about writing Evie’s Ghost, a classy, compelling tale of one young girl’s fight to right the wrongs of events over 200 years ago.

Thirteen-year-old Evie is angry with her mother. She has only gone and got married again and has flown off on honeymoon to Venice, dumping Evie with her ancient and eccentric godmother (who she has never even met) at her flat in Charlbury House, an old, creaky mansion in the middle of nowhere.

It is all seems monumentally unfair to Evie who can’t even get a phone signal at the house but on the first night, she sees the strange, ghostly figure of a girl at the window. Spooked, she flees from the room, feeling oddly disembodied as she does so.

Out in the corridor, it has somehow turned into 1814 and Evie finds herself dressed as a housemaid. She is certain that she has been sent back in time for a reason and she’s right. The family’s daughter Sophia is being forced into an arranged marriage and it’s up to Evie to fix the terrible injustice.

But first there’s a housekeeper barking orders, a bad-tempered master to avoid, and the chamber pots won’t empty themselves. It’s going to take all Evie’s cunning to lay the ghosts of the past to rest so that nothing will break apart in the future...

Beautifully written and brimming with drama, fascinating characters and eye-opening history, this a gripping and fun adventure story set amidst the harsh realities of life for women of all classes in the early 19th century.

Learning and entertainment at every turn of the page…

(Nosy Crow, paperback, £6.99)

Age 9 plus:

The Lotterys Plus One by Emma Donoghue

Families don’t come more diverse – and diverting – than the lovely Lotterys!

Emma Donoghue, international award-winning author of Room which was made into a major film starring Brie Larson, turns her talented hand to writing for children for the first time in a funny, exuberant and original novel about unconventional family life.

The Lotterys Plus One, which places diversity firmly at centre stage, features two sets of gay parents, seven children – from different cultures and backgrounds – a menagerie of animals and a grumpy grandad with dementia.

The result is a sort of controlled and unconventional chaos as newcomer grandad – a square peg in a round hole – battles to come to terms with his strange, multicultural family, and the assorted siblings struggle to cope with his moods and conservative attitudes.

The one thing in life that never changes is that sooner or later things change… the Lotterys are learning that lesson every day now that grandad ‘Grumps’ has moved in with them.

Sumac Lottery is nine years old and the self-proclaimed ‘good girl’ of her very large, extremely unruly family. And what a family the Lotterys are… four parents comprising two same-sex couples and seven children both adopted and biological, all living and learning together in a sprawling house called Camelottery in a suburb of Toronto.

Then one day, the news breaks that one of their grandfathers (of Scottish descent but now living in the wilds of the Yukon) is suffering from dementia and will be coming to live with them. And this is not just any grandfather… he’s the long dormant, grouchy ‘Grumps’ who fell out with his son so long ago that he hasn’t been part of any of their lives.

Suddenly, everything changes. Sumac has to give up her room to make the new member of the family feel at home. She tries to be nice, but prickly, intolerant Grumps clearly disapproves of how the Lotterys live. Whole grains, strange vegetables, rescue pets and a multicultural household are totally alien to him.

How will Sumac and her family manage with another person to add to their hectic lives and can Sumac help Grumps find a home where he belongs?

Caroline Hadilaksono provides the wonderful black-and-white illustrations for this warm, contemporary and unique story which celebrates family life – however complex, curious and diverse that may be – and reminds us that love and affection have no rules or boundaries.

(Macmillan, hardback, £10.99)

Age 10 plus:

The Family Fiasco by Anna Wilson

Skye Green has just turned thirteen and her life gets more mortifying every day…