5. Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer
It is not just the title of one of The Cure's best songs, it is also the name of a spooky ghost novel by Penelope Farmer that was published in 1969. The plot concerns Charlotte - a young girl who goes to boarding school. Life is not straight forward for her as she travels back in time to fill the boots of 'Clare' a young girl who inhabited the boarding school in 1918. Both Clare and Charlotte travel back and forwards through time, never meeting but communicating to each other through the help of an old diary. Charlotte eventually gets trapped in Clare's time. Will she solve the riddle of Clare's existence and manage to maintain her own identity? Charlotte Sometimes manages to convincingly portray the the time period of 1918 - the year of the Armistice and the terrible flu that killed millions of people. Critics have praised Penelope Farmer's deft handling of the time switch technique and the book is an established children's classic. It is haunting enough for adults to enjoy, being exceptionally well written. It is sombre and sad in the way that good ghost stories should be, and it also brings to life its characters and their surroundings in a very vivid and immediate way. A highly acclaimed and influential book, Charlotte Sometimes will thrill younger and older alike.