Our focus at Dinosaur Books Ltd is on producing page-turner books that children love and want to keep reading. Many of our stories link to curriculum topics, including our two historical fiction titles Freedom for Bron and Children of the Benin Kingdom. But that does not mean that we compromise on our core aim of creating fantastic stories that children want to read for pleasure – so our curriculum-linked titles are not only well researched, inclusive and immersive – they’re also cracking adventures.

Children of the Benin Kingdom was written by Dinah Orji and commissioned and edited by Sonya McGilchrist. The brief was to create an exciting story that would engage children from page one and transport them to the wonderous Kingdom of Benin in 13^th century West Africa: immersing readers in the landscape, food, culture and art of the time.

Sonya explains, “We wanted to place the Kingdom of Benin in a West African context – to show that it was the dominant state in the area, but that it was part of a network of kingdoms, and that traders came from across Africa and nearby states to work and trade with the people of this amazing kingdom.”

Sonya adds that as the commissioning editor, her aim was that “Black children would be proud of their history and for all children to enjoy a story which is about family bonds and the importance of friends in facing adversity. The story has an exciting escape and chase narrative, with a brilliant twist at the end. The idea was to grab readers right from the start, which judging by the feedback from children we have succeeded in doing!”

“Historical societies can be difficult to portray – the lives of girls and women were often far more restricted than they are today. But we decided on a girl main character, who forms an alliance with two male friends – as we wanted the story to be groundbreaking in as many ways as possible.”

Nigel Blackman says that his aim in writing Freedom for Bron was to create a tense and dramatic story that immerses children in the early medieval Anglo-Saxon period – from farming to feasting, conflict, trading, culture, clothing and everything in between!

Nigel says: ““I want the reader to enter that world, so that they smell the wood-smoke, feel the sunrise, hear the iron being beaten in the blacksmith’s forge.”

“It was also important for me to have strong female characters – not just boy warriors – and to root my story in the lives of farmers, craftspeople, and villagers as much as kings and warlords. I have been to many schools to talk about the book, and I think that what children love are the bonds of friendship that form between young girl and boy who come from different tribes and positions in society and the way that they have to work together to overcome dangerous enemies.”

A core theme of the story is empathy and friendship across divides. Its hero is an enslaved boy, Bron, who escapes to chase his dreams of freedom and friendship and to find a place where he belongs.

Nigel explains, “The story is about young people growing up, finding friends in unlikely places, and breaking free from the things in life that limit them – that’s what we all want to do, isn’t it? Discover the new possibilities that lie beyond the village boundary, or over the next hill. And if we can do it in the company of a larger-than-life, heroic warlord, while escaping from ruthless enemies who are always barely a step behind – even if we are outnumbered, and running out of time, we have the makings of a great adventure.”

You can read more about the two stories mentioned below and teacher notes for both Children of the Benin Kingdom and Freedom for Bron are available to download from the Dinosaur Books Ltd website.