Adventures Through Time

The basis for so many wonderful gems in our collection of children’s fiction lies in the question of what it would be like to travel back into the past. In these books, we also meet characters who encounter children from other times, as though they have stepped from one time into another: a time slip. Clocks striking 13, medieval mansions, magical statues in mysterious gardens, sleeping in a certain bed or dressing up in historical clothing – discover what trigger it might be that could open a window for you to explore another world!

Updated June 30, 2024
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Wellington City Libraries Children's team at Wellington City Libraries
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Amorangi and Millie's trip through time
Keenan, Lauren
Paper Book
"Amorangi and Millie lost their mum. Their only clue to her whereabouts is a carving on a tree that says, Ím in the past! Rescue me! To do this, Amorangi and Millie must travel up every branch of their family tree and collect an object from each ancestor they meet. They must then be back in the...
Charlotte sometimes
Farmer, Penelope
Paper Book
A time-travel story that is both a poignant exploration of human identity and an absorbing tale of suspense. It's natural to feel a little out of place when you're the new girl, but when Charlotte Makepeace wakes up after her first night at boarding school, she's baffled:...
The house of Arden
Nesbit, E.
Paper Book
The famous Arden family treasure has been missing for generations, and the last members of the Arden line, Edred, Elfrida, and their Aunt Edith, have nothing to their names but the crumbling castle they live in. Just before his tenth birthday, Edred inherits the title of Lord Arden; he also learns...
Ming & Flo fight for the future
French, Jackie
Paper Book
An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world. Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books. So when Ming gets the chance to go...
Tom's midnight garden
Pearce, Philippa
Paper Book
Winner of the Carnegie Medal From beloved author Philippa Pearce, a transcendent story of friendship that Philip Pullman, bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, called "a perfect book."  When Tom's brother gets sick, he's shipped off to spend what he's...
The children of Green Knowe ; and, The river at Green Knowe
Boston, L. M.
Paper Book
These enchanting, haunting stories from Carnegie winner Lucy M. Boston have become modern classics, beautifully evoking all the magic and wonder of childhood. Now The Children of Green Knowe and River at Green Knowe are available in one volume.
A stitch in time
Lively, Penelope
Paper Book
A rediscovered children's classic, winner of the 1976 Whitbread Award, from the Booker Prize and Carnegie Medal-winning author of Moon Tiger and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them...
When Marnie was there
Robinson, Joan G.
Paper Book
A major motion picture adaptation by Studio Ghibli, creators of SPIRITED AWAY and ARRIETTY. Anna hasn't a friend in the world - until she meets Marnie among the sand dunes. But Marnie isn't all she seems... Sent away from her foster home one long, hot summer to a...
A tale of Time City
Jones, Diana Wynne.
Paper Book
In 1939 an eleven-year-old London girl is kidnapped to Time City, a place existing outside the stream of time and manipulating the history of humanity, where she finds the inhabitants facing their worst hour of crisis.
Countdown to yesterday
Marr, Shirley
Paper Book
Rebecca Stead's The List of Things That Will Not Change gets a "Space Oddity" sci-fi twist in this "exceptionally lovely and uplifting" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) middle grade novel about one boy's journey to go back in time to prevent his parents' divorce. ...
Legacy
Hereaka, Whiti
Paper Book
Seventeen-year-old Riki is worried about school and the future, but mostly about his girlfriend, who has suddenly stopped texting him. But on his way to see her, he's hit by a bus and his life radically changes. Riki wakes up one hundred years earlier in Egypt, in 1915, and finds he's living through...

For older readers

A traveller in time
Uttley, Alison
Paper Book
Penelope Taberner Cameron is a solitary and a sickly child, a reader and a dreamer. Her mother, indeed, is of the opinion that the girl has grown all too attached to the products of her imagination and decides to send her away from London for a restorative dose of fresh country air. But staying...

For older readers


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