"When I read history I find it to be rich with exciting events and peopled with vibrant characters," Theresa Breslin once commented. The author of two dozen novels and numerous short stories for readers from the middle grades through high school, Breslin mines the history of her native Scotland in many of her tales and examines the social situation of contemporary Scotland in others. Fascinated by the rich history of Roman-occupied Caledonia, the author has explored that world directly in novels such as Across the Roman Wall. Scottish history also comes to the fore in Duncan of Carrick, and Breslin presents the more-recent history of the 1930s and early 1940s in the novels Kezzie and its sequel, Kezzie's Homecoming. In her 2002 novel, Remembrance, World War I is the inspiration for a double love story.

The versatile Breslin moves from history to social issues in both Simon's Challenge and...