Childrens Books set in Europe?

My brother's family, from Seattle. Washington, is leaving soon to spend six months in Europe. He has a son (13), and two daughters (11 and 7) who will be homeschooled while there. All are avid readers and want to read some books set in Europe. I suggested Thief Lord. Does anyone have other suggestions?

The Thief Lord is the sequel to Inkheart.

Does he want contemporary fiction? Aidan Chambers' Postcards from No-Man's Land is set in WW2 and in modern Amsterdam; various WW2 novels cover children travelling through Europe - The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier is excellent, and also When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett deals with a kingdom supposedly somewhere in the Austro-Hungarian area, as does The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman (the last of the Sally Lockhart adventures, even though she doesn't really feature in that one).

Also Where Were You, Robert by Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a time-jumping historical adventure set in Europe. All of these would be suitable for the 11 and 13 yr old.

Younger fiction set in Europe is harder to find unless you include Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking books which aren't so specifically European in locale as flavour. The Wheel on the School is another good children's book by Meindert de Jong. Also the famous Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner, a funny adventure set in Berlin. Philip Pullman's short spooky mysteries - Count Karlstein and Clockwork both have Bavarian/Romanian-type settings. Even Heidi is a pleasant read for a seven yr old. And good tellings of European fairy-tales - esp. Hans Christian Anderson's - would be a good choice.

It's out of print, but Carol Ryrie Brink (who wrote Caddie Woodlawn) wrote a book about an American family in Europe (mostly France) called "Family Sabbatical." It's a nice book, warm and friendly.

Another good one is Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates. I also like The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer. It takes place in Ireland during the time of Vikings. Rosemary Sutcliffe has lots of books set in Roman Britain.

There is a book called The Canary-Coloured Cart which is the tale of a family who up and tour around Europe in a yellow Dormobile, doing home-schooling for the kids and travelling to places according to Hans Christian Anderson's stories and learning about them by visiting places. The Canary-coloured Cart: One Family's Search for Storybook Europe by Christina Hardyment Link here

Carica said:

Younger fiction set in Europe is harder to find unless you include Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking books which aren't so specifically European in locale as flavour.[...] Also the famous Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner, a funny adventure set in Berlin.

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I completely agree on Astrid Lindgren and Erich Kaestner. I can add only two more of their books :

Astrid Lindgren's "Noisy Village/Bullerby children", about children in a swedish village doing funny things, and

Erich Kaestner's "When I was a little kid", about the author's childhood in Dresden (Germany). Although it is an author's autobiography, it is very suitable for children.

It's a long time since I was that age but perhaps Joan Lingard might be worth a try? Certainly the Kevin & Sadie books as well as 'Tug of War' stayed in my memory longest.

Regards,

K-S

The waveguide said:

I completely agree on Astrid Lindgren and Erich Kaestner. I can add only two more of their books :

Astrid Lindgren's "Noisy Village/Bullerby children", about children in a swedish village doing funny things, and

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I would have included the Bullerby children books as they are amongst my favourite books for young children, but they are very hard to find in print.

I appreciated 'Die schwarzen Brüder' by Lisa Tetzner when I was younger. It's set in Milano and is about young boys that are sold by their families and have to work as chimney sweepers.

I'd also like to recommend 'The Solitaire Mystery' (Kabalmysteriet) by Jostein Gaarder. It's about a boy and his father that travels from Norway to Greece to search for the boy's mother that went there to search for herself.

My favourite book by Astrid Lindgren is probably 'Ronia, the Robber's Daughter' (Ronja Rövardotter).

The only Pippi book I've read was the one where her father is a negro king.

Yes, I'd forgotten Jostein Gaarder. The Christmas Mystery also takes a journey across Europe, in the company of the visitors to the stable.

Carica said:

The Thief Lord is the sequel to Inkheart.

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That's not true, The Thief Lord has nothing to do with Inkheart. Inkblood is the sequel to Inkheart.

hrmajsty: What kind of books are you exactly looking for?

And what time and place would you prefer? Europe's pretty diverse and has a lot of history, so it'd help if you narrowed it down a bit.

Mafalda said:

That's not true, The Thief Lord has nothing to do with Inkheart. Inkblood is the sequel to Inkheart.

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Yes, you're right. I was getting confused with the titles.