Aiken, Joan. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.
Set in the countryside of Victorian England, this novel tells the story of two children, their helpful friend Simon, a tyrannical governess and her strict father.
Ardagh, Philip. A House Called Awful End. (The Eddie Dickens Trilogy)
When eleven-year-old Eddie Dickens’ parents become ill, he is taken in by his great-uncle and great-aunt and embarks on adventures that involve strolling actors, St. Horrid’s Home for Grateful Orphans, and a carnival float shaped like a giant cow.
Avi. The Cross of Lead.
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
Bellairs, John. The House with a Clock in its Walls.
A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion with a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes to doomsday.
Bloor, Edward. The Memory Prisoner.
With her younger brother in danger, fifteen-year-old Maddie runs out of the house she has not left since she was two years old when the evil town librarian threatened to harm her.
Byng, Georgia. Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism.
Unlucky and unloved, Molly Moon, living in a dreary orphanage in a small English town, discovers a hidden talent for hypnotism and hypnotizes her way to stardom in New York city.
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl.
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
Dahl, Roald. The Witches.
A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches’ plot to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.
Funke, Cornelia Caroline. The Thief Lord.
Two brothers, having run away from an aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought out by a detective, but find shelter with Venice’s “Thief Lord.”
Garfield, Leon. Smith.
Moments after he steals a document from a man’s pocket, an illiterate young pickpocket in eighteenth-century London witnesses the man’s murder by two men who want the document.
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Pictures of Hollis Woods.
A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.
Gliori, Debi. Pure Dead Magic.
When their father is kidnapped and danger looms, the Strega-Borgia children, their mysterious new nanny, and a giant tarantula use magic and actual trips through the Internet to bring peace to their Scottish castle.
Ibbotson, Eva. Dial-a-Ghost.
A family of nice ghosts protects a British orphan from the diabolical plans of his evil guardians.
Ibbotson, Eva. Island of the Aunts.
As they get older, several sisters decide that they must kidnap children and bring them to their secluded island home to help with the work of caring for an assortment of unusual sea creatures.
Ibbotson, Eva. The Secret of Platform 13.
Odge Gribble, a young hag, accompanies an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on their mission through a magical tunnel from their island to London to rescue their King and Queen’s son who had been stolen as an infant.
Kennedy, X.J. The Owlstone Crown.
Orphans Timothy and Verity are cruelly treated by their foster parents before escaping to another world where they are caught up in a struggle against a despicable tyrant and his wicked ally.
Kurzweil, Allen. Leon and the Spitting Image.
Leon, a fourth grader at The Ethical School, tries to outwit the school bully and learn to sew for fanatical teacher Miss Cronheim, with unexpected help from his final project – a doll with magical powers.
Nimmo, Jenny. Midnight for Charlie Bone: Children of the Red King.
Charlie Bone’s life with his widowed mother and two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking.
Pullman, Philip. I Was a Rat.
A little boy turns life in London upside down when he appears at the house of a lonely old couple and insists he was a rat.
Pullman, Philip. Count Karlstein.
In the mountains of Switzerland, the wicked Count Karlstein plots to abandon his two orphaned nieces in a hunting lodge as prey for the Demon Huntsman and his ghostly hounds.
Wallace, Barbara Brooks. Ghosts in the Gallery.
When eleven-year-old Jenny arrives at her grandfather’s house, she is not recognized as one of the family because of a servant’s intrigue, and the young orphan endures a difficult fate.