Travelling back in time by magical steam train isn’t what you’d expect to be used to in your first year at Secondary school.

Yet for Tomma, Jess, Nadia and Ash that’s exactly what has happened. Three times. Each journey to a different period in time; each trip an opportunity for one of the children to learn something about their family history and themselves. Now it’s Tomma’s turn.

Tomma Handley knows his mum came to England from Croatia when she was a girl, but that’s it. Everything else about her past is a mystery, a closely guarded secret she has never been willing to share. Will a trip back to 1990s Hickley School reveal why she came to England and what happened to her that meant she has never been able to talk about it?

It’s time to board the train for the final time with the four friends.

Time School: We Will Comfort Them is the fourth middle-grade book in the Time School series by author Nikki Young and the last. For those of you not familiar with this time-slip series which includes – Time School: We Will Remember Them, Time School: We Will Honour Them, and Time School: We Will Stand with Them, I would recommend giving them a read.

The books follow Tomma, Ash, Jess, and Nadia who all attend Hickley High School. The four friends travel to school via the train but occasionally the train takes them into the past. This time they go back to 1994 where a new student is attending Hickley School who has come from Croatia. It soon transpires that the student is Tomma’s mum and that she has been smuggled out of her war-torn country.

The series has been amazing and it was fantastic to venture back in time and witness the different periods. This book felt slightly different to me as I was born towards the end of the 1970s and was at high school during the early nighties so it was like a trip down memory lane.

The stories seamlessly intertwine adventure and historical exploration. This a series that children will learn so much from, not only about events that happened in the past but about being kind, standing up for what you believe in, the power of having a good friendship group, and many more. The book is filled with touching and thought-provoking moments and the author doesn’t shy away from the serious issues that happened in the 90s.

Overall, Time School: We Will Comfort Them is a tremendous read and I’m sad that the series has ended. Although it does contain hard-hitting moments it is also an uplifting book and very enjoyable.

Nikki Young is a writer and lover of stories and ‘The Mystery of the Disappearing Underpants’ was her first book. Nikki credits her lively imagination to an amazing childhood, growing up in Yorkshire and living in a cul-de-sac in the days when children were allowed to run free and left to make their own fun!

Now a mum of three, she says that in her head, she hasn’t really grown up and those memories of her childhood days remain strong and active.