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Children's reading lists

17 must-have historical fiction books for kids

15th Doctor Novel

Doctor Who: 1001 Nights in Time and Space

Stories are the most important thing of all because they are just about the only living thing that lasts...' 
 
At the end of the universe, a mysterious storyteller builds a campfire to draw his audience. He has gathered tales like any minstrel of old - and his specialty is tales of the Doctor. In this book of stories both long and short, you can experience Doctor Who's adventures through the prism of folk tales and fables. Retold from unusual perspectives, 1001 Nights in Time and Space is a bubbling mix of heroes and villains, soldiers and monsters, princesses, goblins, demons, tricksters, computers, ghosts and gods from all across the universe... taking inspiration from the entire 60-plus years lifespan of Doctor Who. 
 
(P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd © 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Steve Cole (Author) 
Steve Cole is a best-selling author for children and young adults and has written over 150 books of which sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children's bestseller and been published widely internationally. A highly versatile fantasy, comedy and adventure writer, Steve's work includes a broad range of novels such as Magic Ink! and Adventure Duck for younger readers. His original fiction titles for Doctor Who for which he now acts as range consultant for BBC Books have also been top-ten bestsellers. He also succeeded Charlie Higson as the writer for Young Bond, a series which follows the adventures of the teenage James Bond and has worked with adventurer and TV presenter Ben Fogle on his Mr Dog UK top ten best-selling childrens' book series.

Folk Tales rescued from around the Whoniverse

Steve Cole (Author) 
Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers. 
 
Paul Magrs (Author) 
Paul Magrs was born in 1969 in the North East of England. He has written numerous novels and short stories for adults, teens, children and Doctor Who fans. He teaches Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

‘Stories are the most important thing of all because they are just about the only living thing that lasts…' 
 
At the end of the universe, a mysterious storyteller builds a campfire to draw his audience. He has gathered tales like any minstrel of old – and his specialty is tales of the Doctor. 
 
In this book of stories both long and short, you can experience Doctor Who’s adventures through the prism of folk tales and fables. Retold from unusual perspectives, 1001 Nights in Time and Space is a bubbling mix of heroes and villains, soldiers and monsters, princesses, goblins, demons, tricksters, computers, ghosts and gods from all across the universe… taking inspiration from the entire 60-plus years lifespan of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who: Combat Magicks

Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers.

How do you win a battle when the dead fight on? 
 The TARDIS arrives in Gaul in 451AD, on the eve of battle between the forces of Attila the Hun and those of the crumbling Roman Empire. But the Doctor soon finds that both sides are being helped by sinister, supernatural creatures. 
 While Graham makes allies in the Roman camp and Ryan is pursued by the enigmatic Legion of Smoke, the Doctor and Yasmin are pressed into service as Attila’s personal sorcerers. But the Doctor knows there is science behind the combat magicks – and that the true war will pit all humanity against a ruthless alien threat. 
 Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan and Graham, as played by Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh.

Doctor Who: The Gold Archive: Invasions of Earth: A Secret History

Mike Tucker (Author) Mike Tucker writes books for children and young adults, and has written several original Doctor Who novels, a number of Merlin novelisations, and original fiction for other shared universes. He has also co-written numerous factual books relating to film and television, including a history of the BBC’s Visual Effects Department, ‘Impossible Worlds’ (a look at the concept art of ‘Doctor Who’) and the TARDIS Instruction Manual. 
 
Alongside his writing, Mike is a BAFTA winning Visual Effects Designer, and his company - The Model Unit - has been responsible for miniature effects sequences for programmes such as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Red Dwarf’ and ‘Good Omens.’ Steve Cole (Author) Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers.

For over half a century the world has been kept safe from alien invasion by the tireless work of UNIT – the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Finally, that story has been uncovered. 
 
From the early days working in secret under the command of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to the new, modern UNIT organisation under the leadership of his daughter Kate, this secret history exposes the many threats ranged against our world – and how UNIT has saved humanity time and again. 
 
Carefully curated from the top-secret, maximum-security heart of UNIT itself, this never-before-seen account includes declassified case files spanning five decades, technical schematics of recovered alien technology, previously unreleased press reports and testimony from UNIT personnel who witnessed events first hand. 
 
Featuring plenty of input from the Fifteenth Doctor himself, The Gold Archive stands as the ultimate guide to Earth’s invasions.

Memoirs of an Impossible Blue Box

Doctor Who: I, TARDIS

Lizzie Hopley reads the TARDIS's enthrallingly in-depth account of her incredible adventures to date. 
 
Packed with stories from across time and space, this is the first ever memoir by the TARDIS. 
 
&lsquo;Did you ever wonder why I chose you all those years ago? I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away...&rsquo; 
 
The Doctor has a unique bond with their TARDIS. They&rsquo;ve always loved the &lsquo;old girl&rsquo; for the way she&rsquo;s gone looking for trouble anywhere in the universe. The Doctor says they stole the TARDIS from Gallifrey. The TARDIS disagrees&hellip;she stole them. It hasn&rsquo;t always taken the Doctor where they want to go, but it&rsquo;s made sure to take them where they needed to be. 
 
For the TARDIS is far more than just a time machine crossed with a spaceship. Its life reflects the Doctor&rsquo;s life &ndash; a shared wanderlust and longing to explore. Now you can revisit the Doctor&rsquo;s adventures as seen through the eyes &ndash; or the flashing rooftop light, at least &ndash; of the TARDIS. From the time the Doctor stole it from Gallifrey to its latest adventures with the Fifteenth Doctor, the TARDIS reflects wittily on its epic, incredible history &ndash; past, present and future!

&lsquo;Did you ever wonder why I chose you all those years ago? I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away...&rsquo; 
 
The Doctor has a unique bond with their TARDIS. They&rsquo;ve always loved the &lsquo;old girl&rsquo; for the way she&rsquo;s gone looking for trouble anywhere in the universe. The Doctor says they stole the TARDIS from Gallifrey. The TARDIS disagrees&hellip; she stole them. She hasn&rsquo;t always taken them where they want to go, but she&rsquo;s made sure to take them where they needed to be. 
 
For the TARDIS is far more than just a time machine crossed with a spaceship. Her life reflects the Doctor&rsquo;s life &ndash; a shared wanderlust and longing to explore. Now you can revisit the Doctor&rsquo;s adventures as seen through the eyes &ndash; or the flashing rooftop light, at least &ndash; of the TARDIS. From the time the Doctor stole her from Gallifrey to her latest adventures with the Fifteenth Doctor, the TARDIS reflects wittily on her epic, incredible history &ndash; past, present and future!

Festive tales with the Tenth Doctor

Doctor Who: Ten Days of Christmas

Return to the incredible days of Ten this Christmas . . . 
 
For the Tenth Doctor, the festive season always brought adventure. 
 
In fact, he's saved Christmas across space and time more times than we ever knew . . . 
 
Join the Doctor (and Donna and Martha and Rose, and other friends old and new) for incredible tales of daring and danger. From Daleks plotting to save humanity to Sycorax working to exploit it . . . from star-narwhals massing on the Moon to a toy factory in space. 
 
Because even in the jolliest of seasons there's a world or two to save.

Steve Cole (Author) Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers. Doctor Who (Author) Doctor Who is the longest running sci-fi show in the world, and a flagship BBC property. First appearing on air in 1963, it follows the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord who travels through time and space, fighting alien monsters and saving the universe.

Time Lord Victorious

Doctor Who: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead

The first of two exciting new novels featuring the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctors, connected to the multi-platform Doctor Who project Time Lord Victorious.

We live forever, barring accidents. Just like everyone else in the universe. 
 
The Doctor travels back to the Ancient Days, an era where life flourishes and death is barely known... 
 
Then come the Kotturuh – creatures who spread through the cosmos dispensing mortality. They judge each and every species and decree its allotted time to live. For the first time, living things know the fear of ending. And they will go to any lengths to escape this grim new spectre, death. 
 
The Doctor is an old hand at cheating death. Now, at last, he can stop it at source. He is coming for the Kotturuh, ready to change everything so that Life wins from the start. 
 
Not just the last of the Time Lords. The Time Lord Victorious.

Doctor Who: The Target Storybook

A brilliant new collection of spin-off stories from famous episodes throughout the history of Doctor Who - and a new format for the successful Target publishing range.

We’re all stories in the end… 
 
In this exciting collection you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and look forward too, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor. 
 
Each story expands in thrilling ways upon aspects of Doctor Who’s enduring legend. With contributions from show luminaries past and present – including Colin Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Vinay Patel, Joy Wilkinson and Terrance Dicks – The Target Storybook is a once-in-a-lifetime tour around the wonders of the Whoniverse.

Doctor Who: Star Tales

To celebrate the return of Doctor Who in early 2020, a unique collection of name-dropping historical adventures inspired by Jodie Whitaker’s first series as The Doctor.

‘Even though they’re gone from the world, they’re never gone from me.’ 
 
The Doctor is many things – curious, funny, brave, protective of her friends...and a shameless namedropper. While she and her companions battled aliens and travelled across the universe, the Doctor hinted at a host of previous, untold adventures with the great and the good: we discovered she got her sunglasses from Pythagoras (or was it Audrey Hepburn?); lent a mobile phone to Elvis; had an encounter with Amelia Earhart where she discovered that a pencil-thick spider web can stop a plane; had a 'wet weekend' with Harry Houdini, learning how to escape from chains underwater; and more. 
 
In this collection of new stories, Star Tales takes you on a rip-roaring ride through history, from 500BC to the swinging 60s, going deeper into the Doctor's notorious name-dropping and revealing the truth behind these anecdotes.

13th Doctor Novelisation

A brand new novel featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, as played on TV by Jodie Whittaker.

Mandip Gill reads this exciting original adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor 
 
“Witch, you will rise from my throne, for we are due a reckoning.” 
 
The TARDIS arrives in Gaul in 451AD, on the eve of battle between the forces of Attila the Hun and those of the crumbling Roman Empire. But the Doctor soon finds that both sides are being helped by sinister, 
supernatural creatures. 
 
While Graham makes allies in the Roman camp and Ryan is pursued by the enigmatic Legion of Smoke, the Doctor and Yasmin are pressed into service as Attila’s personal sorcerers. 
 
But the Doctor knows there is science behind the combat magicks – and that the true war will pit all humanity against a ruthless alien threat. 
 
Mandip Gill, who plays Yasmin in the BBC TV series, reads this original story featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan and Graham, as played by Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh.

Young Bond: Red Nemesis

James is back in Steve Cole's fourth and final blistering Young Bond adventure

BEFORE THE MAN BECAME THE LEGEND. 
BEFORE THE BOY BECAME THE MAN. 
 
James is back in Steve Cole's fourth and final blistering Young Bond adventure . . . 
 
James is on home soil when he receives a package with a message from beyond the grave. The package’s mysterious contents put James at the heart of a long-running plot that, if it runs its course, will paint London’s streets red with blood. Not only will James have to fight to stay alive and save the country he loves, but to clear the Bond family name, which he holds so dear. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and James doesn’t know who he can trust . . . 
 
Books in the series: 
1. SHOOT TO KILL 
2. HEADS YOU DIE 
3. STRIKE LIGHTNING 
4. RED NEMESIS

Young Bond: Strike Lightning

Young Bond is back in his third Steve Cole adventure – and the stakes are higher than ever before . . .

BEFORE THE MAN BECAME THE LEGEND. 
BEFORE THE BOY BECAME THE MAN. 
 
James Bond is back again in Steve Cole's third thrilling Young Bond adventure. 
 
When James stumbles upon a horrific sight, he knows things are not what they seem. His school is determined to make him believe what happened was an accident, but James believes what he saw was murder. 
 
The significance of the events at school only come to light in the course of an adventure that takes James across Europe and puts him within range of a warmongering villain. Has James got what it takes to triumph over this man, the worst kind of enemy, who boasts a new kind of weapon? 
 
Books in the series: 
1. SHOOT TO KILL 
2. HEADS YOU DIE 
3. STRIKE LIGHTNING

Young Bond: Heads You Die

The explosive action of YOUNG BOND: SHOOT TO KILL continues in Steve Cole's second Young Bond adventure . . .

There are car chases, fight scenes, a glamorous party and a final shoot-out that is surely a homage to the climax of The Man With the Golden Gun . . . [Cole] is a master of action, and the scenes on the sinister airship as it makes its way over the Atlantic are particularly tense.

BEFORE THE MAN BECAME THE LEGEND. 
BEFORE THE BOY BECAME THE MAN. 
 
The explosive action continues in Steve Cole's second Young Bond adventure . . . 
 
James's Cuban holiday has become a nightmare mission to save an old friend from a villain who has perfected 1,000 ways to kill. 
 
With corrupt cops and hired assassins hot on his heels, James must travel through Havana and brave Caribbean waters to stop a countdown to mass murder. 
 
Fates will be decided with the flip of a coin. Heads or tails. Live or die. 
 
Books in the series 
1: SHOOT TO KILL 
2: HEADS YOU DIE

Young Bond: Shoot to Kill

What impressed me most about Shoot to Kill was Cole’s ability to create a contained story that moved the character of James Bond on, but stayed true to the Fleming vision. Children will love the action elements of this book, but even an adult who is a fan of Bond can get some sneaky pleasure out of the book.

The story was exciting and the period details were authentic; he has obviously done his research and handles his material with confidence. The writing is economical and the characters are well drawn, they include some suitably villainous bad guys plus strong female roles too. As a life-long fan of Fleming's books Steve Cole is comfortable in Bond's world including several playful nods to the older Bond's character.

Action-packed, with references to Fleming's Bond that will surprise and delight the most avid Bond fan.

Comedy, dash and imagination refresh a rebooted British hero.

Packed with blackmail, murder and revenge, Shoot to Kill is Young Bond at his best.

Cole, Steve Cole, has picked up the bond baton from Charlie Higson with this his first book in the Young Bond sereis. It's set in mafia-soaked, golden-era Hollywood, giving this proto-007 plenty of scope for adventure. It's a cracking read with fantasic fight scenes, glam parties and some pretty decent plotting

BEFORE THE MAN BECAME THE LEGEND. 
BEFORE THE BOY BECAME THE MAN. 
 
James Bond hits Hollywood . . . 
Lights. Camera. Murder. 
 
Young Bond is back – in his most action-packed, explosive adventure yet.

Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned

A spooky sci-fi adventure from the Doctor Who BBC Books series

When a naval cruiser sinks in mysterious circumstances in the North Sea, all aboard are lost. Rose is saddened to learn that the brother of her friend, Keisha, was among the dead. And yet he appears to them as a ghostly apparition, begging to be saved from the coming feast... the feast of the drowned. 
 
As the dead crew haunt loved ones all over London, the Doctor and Rose are drawn into a chilling mystery. What sank the ship, and why? When the cruiser's wreckage was towed up the Thames, what sinister force came with it? The river's dark waters are hiding an even darker secret, as preparations for the feast near their conclusion 
 
Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Rose as played by David Tennant and Billie Piper in the acclaimed Doctor Who series from BBC Television.

Doctor Who: The Art of Destruction

The Doctor and Rose are caught up in an alien war – from the bestselling BBC Books Doctor Who science fiction range.

The TARDIS lands in 22nd century Africa in the shadow of a dormant volcano. Agri-teams are growing new foodstuffs in the baking soil to help feed the world's starving millions, but the Doctor and Rose have detected an alien signal somewhere close by. When a nightmare force starts surging along the dark volcanic tunnels, the Doctor realises an ancient trap has been sprung. But who was it meant for? And what is the secret of the eerie statues that stand at the heart of the volcano? Dragged into a centuries-old conflict, Rose and the Doctor are soon elevating survival to an art form as ancient, alien hands practice arts of destruction all around them. 
 
Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Rose as played by David Tennant and Billie Piper in the hit Doctor Who series from BBC Television.

Doctor Who: The Shadow In The Glass

The History Collection

The Doctor Who History Collection: Eight classic adventures. Eight unforgettable moments in time. Lots of impossible things.

Steve Cole (Author) Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers. Justin Richards (Author) A celebrated writer and Creative Consultant to the BBC Books range of Doctor Who books, Justin Richards lives and works in Warwick with his wife and two children. When he’s not writing, he can be found indulging his passion for inventing, reading and watching far too much television.

When a squadron of RAF Hurricanes shoots down an unidentified aircraft over Turelhampton, the village is immediately evacuated. But why is the village still guarded by troops in 2001? When a television documentary crew break through the cordon looking for a story, they find they've recorded more than they'd bargained for. 
 
 Caught up in both a deadly conspiracy and a historical mystery, retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart calls upon his old friend the Doctor. Half-glimpsed demons watch from the shadows as the Doctor and the Brigadier travel back in time to discover the last, and deadliest, secret of the Second World War. 
 
 An adventure set partly in the Second World War, featuring the Sixth Doctor as played by Colin Baker and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Doctor Who: Monsters Inside

More intergalactic adventure from the BBC Books Doctor Who science fiction range

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Rose to a destination in deep space - Justicia, a prison camp stretched over seven planets, where Earth colonies deal with their criminals. While Rose finds herself locked up in a teenage borstal, the Doctor is trapped in a scientific labour camp. Each is determined to find the other, and soon both Rose and the Doctor are risking life and limb to escape in their distinctive styles. But their dangerous plans are complicated by some old enemies. Are these creatures fellow prisoners as they claim, or staging a takeover for their own sinister purposes? 
 
Featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose as played by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in the hit Doctor Who series from BBC Television

The Lost Classic

Doctor Who: The Vampire Mutation

Steve Cole (Author) Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers. Terrance Dicks (Author) Terrance Dicks became Script Editor of Doctor Who in 1968, co-writing Patrick Troughton’s classic final serial, The War Games, and editing the show throughout the entire Jon Pertwee era to 1974. He wrote many iconic episodes and serials for the show after, including Tom Baker's first episode as the Fourth Doctor, Robot; Horror at Fang Rock in 1977; State of Decay in 1980; and the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors in 1983. Terrance novelised over sixty of the original Doctor Who stories for Target books, including classics like Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen and Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, inspiring a generation of children to become readers and writers. He died in August 2019, only weeks before the publication of his final Doctor Who short story, ‘Save Yourself’, in The Target Storybook.

Terrance Dicks’s The Vampire Mutation was intended to open Doctor Who’s 15th season in 1977. Cancelled at the last moment, its secrets were believed lost forever. Now, working from never-before seen scripts and synopses, Steve Cole’s novelisation brings this ‘lost’ adventure from a much-loved writer into the light. 
 
‘The conjunctions of the stars at last permit the awakening of the Dead One…’ 
 
Summoned by the White Guardian to a domain outside time and space, the Doctor learns that the lynchpin of the cosmos – the Time Key – has been stolen. He must recover its six components before a great darkness smothers the universe. 
 
The first fragment draws the TARDIS to a remote, mist-choked planet. Captured by terrified locals, Leela hears tell of night-creatures that drink the blood of their victims… while the Doctor falls prey to the sinister Council of Seven. 
 
Who are the Witch Lords? What is the terrible significance of the Thousand Year Sabbath? With the world on the brink of catastrophe, will the vampire mutation thwart the Doctor’s quest for the Time Key before it’s even begun?

Juno Dawson

Steve Cole

Una McCormack

Mandip Gill

Clare Corbett

Dan Starkey

13th Doctor Novels

Clare Corbett, Dan Starkey and Mandip Gill read three full-length novels featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan and Graham, as played on TV by Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh. 
 
In The Good Doctor, by Juno Dawson, the Doctor halts a violent war between the natives of Lobos and human colonists. When Ryan leaves his phone behind, the travellers return hundreds of years into Lobos’s future and find that something has gone badly wrong. The human zealots now worship a figure known as The Good Doctor! 
 
In Molten Heart, by Una McCormack, the planet Adamantine is under threat from shrinking seas, cooling magma and the spread of the mysterious, fatal Seething Pools. The Doctor and her friends must lead its living rock-people in an expedition to save their world’s molten heart. 
 
In Combat Majicks, by Steve Cole, the TARDIS arrives in Gaul in 451AD, on the eve of battle between Attila the Hun and the crumbling Roman Empire. But the Doctor soon finds that both sides are being helped by sinister, supernatural creatures, and that the ensuing war will pit all humanity against a ruthless alien threat. 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Steve Cole

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17 must-have historical fiction books for kids

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