My Story Books in Order

Carol Drinkwater's My Story books are historical novels for younger readers, written in the first person so the past feels close, immediate, and personal. Rather than telling history from a distance, these books drop you into it through the voice of one girl living through events she cannot control. That approach gives the series its force. Big public history is always filtered through private fear, hope, family life, and daily survival.

Drinkwater's entries in the series cover a wide spread of settings and moments. In The Hunger, she takes readers to Ireland during the potato blight, following Phyllis McCormack as famine closes in on her family and pushes her toward the search for a rebel brother. In Twentieth Century Girl, also known as 1900: A Brand-New Century, Flora Bonnington lives at the turn of the century and wants a life larger than the one polite society has planned for her. In Suffragette, Dollie Baxter is drawn into the campaign for votes for women and must decide how far she is willing to go as protest hardens into real danger.

These are books about young people caught inside change.

That is why they work so well. The historical detail matters, but the emotional access matters more. Flora wants education and independence. Dollie wants purpose and courage. Phyllis wants to keep her family going. In Nowhere to Run, the setting shifts to the south of France during the Second World War, where danger, displacement, and the persecution of Jewish families shape every choice. Across the books, Drinkwater keeps returning to the same idea: history is not only made by famous names. It is lived by ordinary people, one frightened or hopeful day at a time.

The tone is accessible without feeling watered down. The books are aimed at younger readers, but they do not flatten the stakes. Hunger, war, inequality, and political struggle are all present. What changes is the lens. Everything is brought down to a level a child can feel, whether that means worry over food, fear of arrest, conflict with parents, or the thrill of being pulled into a cause larger than yourself.

Cadogan Square is especially helpful if you like linked stories. It brings together Twentieth Century Girl and Suffragette, showing two connected lives across fifteen years of Edwardian London. That gives the page a little more sweep and lets readers see how one generation's hopes feed into the next.

If you are wondering what to expect from this series, think vivid history, strong young narrators, and stories that make the past feel human rather than decorative. These books are a good fit for readers who like diary fiction, school history made personal, and characters who are young enough to feel overwhelmed but brave enough to keep going anyway.