In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer, by Irene Gut Opdyke with Jennifer Armstrong (Corgi, £4.99) Age 11+

The second world war is "done" by students at least once at school. These particular memories were determinedly relegated to the past until Holocaust denial stories horrified Opdyke to such an extent that she resolved to make her story public. The result is at once fascinating, engaging and riveting, the story of a girl's wily courage in saving lives while risking her own. She was utterly selfless and never reneged on her responsibility, an example of heroism illuminating the humanity behind the dates, maps and battles. I couldn't help but wonder - what would I have done?

Horrible Geography: Raging Rivers, by Anita Ganeri (Scholastic, £3.99) Age 7-12 yrs

As often happens, the outstanding success of Terry Deary's Horrible History series has distracted us from its merits as a means of informing children about the past, and of encouraging them to find out by reading books. These - and the Horrible Geography series - don't pretend to be school text books, but they sow seeds to make the teacher's job all the more enjoyable. By cajoling readers into thinking through factual narrative and cartoons, often relating them to the familiar, the author includes children in her voyage of discovery. Don't expect glossaries or indexes -these books don't work like that.