The positive impact of the Horrible Histories and copycat treatments of the past cannot be denied, particularly with regard to boys’ reading. But an unvaried diet of such facetious fare could lead to a shallow, detached view of history as a place filled with comic-strip characters who had little bearing on the way we live today. Fiction can provide a corrective.

Knights, Kings and Conquerors by Geraldine McCaughrean (Orion Children’s Books pound;4.99) is an antidote for any child in Years 3 to 5 who may have overdosed on the jocular, debunking school of historical narrative. The 20 stories are selected from the large hardback, Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History, published in 1999. As splendid a gift book as that was, the stories are much more accessible in this small paperback. McCaughrean is superb at deftly creating a picture with almost every sentence. Take this first-person account of a member of Julius Caesar’s landing-force: “They were even driving their chariots in and out of the water, raising glassy fantails of spray higher than our heads: an awesome sight.”

Short, accessible historical fiction has never been better. In Victorian Flashbacks, an excellent series for nine-year-olds and above from Aamp;C Black, some of the harsher aspects of growing up in the 19th century are seen through children’s eyes. Soldier’s Son (pound;8.99) by Garry Kilworth tells the story of Tim, an 11-year-old who accompanies his parents into the battle zone of the Crimean War. The book brings to life the hugely changed circumstances of warfare. In the same publisher’s World War II Flashbacks (reviewed in TES Primary, February 2001), children are placed in highly-charged situations at key moments between 1939 and 1945.

Robert Leeson’s Tom’s War Patrol (pound;3.99), a sequel to Tom’s Private War, is a top-notch read for younger children (seven-plus), set in the same period. Leeson spotlights jingoistic reactions when a young girl faces an aggressive protest at her attempts to smother flames on the clothing of a crashed German pilot. For the Orchard Road gang (Tom and his friends), the war provides a lively arena for imaginative play. With scout-knives attached to wooden rifles, they strut about as an unofficial Home Guard and have showy confrontations with the gang from Barker’s Crescent. But the horror of war is brought home when Tom learns that Scouser, a recently returned evacuee, has been killed in a Liverpool bombing raid.

Jack Wood’s Digging For Victory (Watts pound;3.99) is a comedy that cleverly conveys what life on the Home Front (the series title) was like, and addresses the relationship between food rationing and the black market.

Scholastic’s My Story series has a book about the Blitz, but The Tudor Queen (pound;4.99) is the title that stands out. Alison Prince uses the diary voice of Eva de Puebla, childhood companion to Catherine of Aragon, in a way that will help young readers understand the complex pattern of royal births, deaths and marital alliances that led to Henry VIII’s accession and first marriage.

Caroline Lawrence’s The Thieves of Ostia (Orion Children’s Books pound;4.99), the first in a series of Roman Mysteries, is fiction with a historical setting, rather than fiction based on real events, but it nevertheless aims to give its audience a taste of life in the first century AD. It’s a diverting tale in which a group of children, led by the intrepid sea-captain’s daughter, Flavia Gemini, have to find out who is going about decapitating dogs.

Finally, Only a Matter of Time: a story from Kosovo by Stewart Ross (Wayland pound;9.99), is a fictional treatment of a real contemporary conflict in which a character says: “History? You don’t want to bother with that. It means nothing but trouble”, a sentiment reinforced by the ensuing story of Serb-Albanian tension, for upper primary readers and above.

Pupils’ appetite for historical fiction, by way of contrast, is only likely to be further whetted by such a range of books, with something to suit every child’s taste and stamina.