4 Great Books That Will Send Young Readers Back to the Victorian Age
Victorian-era London on the page often feels like one big Imaginarium, full of supernatural nooks, creepy crannies, and eminently explorable, twisting streets. The age of gaslights and steam locomotion seems to inspire writers to fill their stories with enchanted happenings and mysterious figures, even more so when their main audience is kids. If you’ve got a budding steampunk fan on your hands, or a young reader who loves to lose themselves in magical world-building, give them one of these four atmospheric Victorian tales:
Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times, by Emma Trevayne
The neglected child of rich parents, Jack is the perfect target for a ruthless otherworldly Lady, who lives in an alternate, steampunk London and longs for a human son. Jack enters the world of Londonium by magical means, and once there finds himself torn between continued adventures and returning to the safety of home. Ratcheting danger, atmospheric writing, and quirky characters such as the indefatigable mechanical girl known as Beth Number Thirteen will keep your kid fully invested in Trevayne’s action-packed world.
How to Catch a Bogle, by Catherine Jinks
10-year-old Birdie is a boot-strapping orphan who eschews the cold comforts of the workhouse for a more thrilling life as the apprentice of a “bogler,” or monster catcher, who uses Birdie and her beautiful voice to lure out bogles who would like nothing more than a snack of warm child. A kid-snatching warlock and a do-gooder who wants to make Birdie into a lady are among the less bloodthirsty foes our heroine has to face in this first installment of a planned trilogy. Kids will love loyal, adventurous Birdie and thrill at the variety of monsters she meets.
The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann
Inhabiting another reimagined England, Bachmann’s story is filled with quirky character names that feel good on the tongue and an enticingly scary stew of supernatural creatures, automatons, and a downtrodden protagonist who dares to stand up. Bartholomew and his sister, Hettie, are changelings—neither faerie nor human, and rejected by both, they’re forced to live out of sight in a faery slum. But after Bartholomew is spied by a dark, feathered woman during her abduction of another changeling boy, he’s swept into a supernatural battle that includes a rash of disappearances that might claim Hettie next. That Bachmann wrote and published this book as a teen might add a note of inspiration for young readers who also aspire to write.
Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz
This impeccably imagined tale uses intense period detail to recall the best-loved books of an earlier era. Clara, the underloved only child of rich parents, demands a puppet show for her birthday—then goes missing after the festivities, along with nefarious puppeteer Grisini. His orphaned assistants—Lizzie Rose, a self-styled young lady who longs for a family, and classic wily street urchin Parsefall—are left with an eerily familiar new puppet and a letter from a dying witch that they find among Grisini’s possessions. They embark with a transformed Clara on an eerie journey to the witch’s house, entering an evil supernatural web they may not survive.
What books are your kids reading right now?