- Adventure
- Chapter Books
- Ages 8–12
The shape of it
The shape of this universe.
Karen Inglis's much-loved time-slip adventure series, in which a hidden tunnel beneath a London garden opens onto a secret lake and a world almost a hundred years in the past. Across three books, siblings Stella and Tom slip between present-day London and the Edwardian era, forging friendships across time and being pulled into daring rescues and a genuine mystery. Warm, brisk and gentle at heart, the stories carry short chapters and real puzzles to solve, in the tradition of classic garden time-travel adventures brought up to date. An international self-published success translated into many languages, the series is a reliable, comforting hook for eight-to-eleven-year-olds who like their thrills without the fright.
A warm, gentle time-slip adventure series in the classic garden-mystery tradition — a hidden tunnel, a secret lake and friendships that reach across a century.
The series
One way in.
Cultural footprint
A shelf of evidence.
What The Secret Lake has done
- Major award winner
- Bestseller
Cultural ubiquity
2/ 5A working classic for readers in the know.
Sensitivity
Moderate, and collection-wide.
Content notes
- Illness or disability
Across the collection
All 3 books.
About the creator