I, Coriander by Sally GardnerDial Books, 2005 (originally Orion Books, 2005)

There’s something so satisfying about historical-fiction-meets-fantasy, and this book is especially lovely. It’s set in London in the mid-1600s, from the beheading of Charles I to the Interregnum and then the Restoration, and when I’d finished reading I felt sad to leave this imagining of London, the Thames winding through the city, the shouts of the watermen and the night-watch. Coriander Hobie is a spirited heroine, and I liked the fairy-tale-with-a-twist elements of the magic of this book, its fairy world on the other side of things. I liked, too, this book’s stories within stories, and its recognition of the power of words and of names.