Bath and North East Somerset Libraries

When a traveller family experiences a run of bad luck, an imaginative boy called Yokki lifts their spirits with tales of a magical white horse.

A traditional traveller-family folk tale which inspires hope and celebrates creativity.

In this heart-stopping adventure based on real historical events, Richard O’Neill introduces readers to Rab Howell, England’s first ever professional Romany football player.

Here is an inspiring story about a Romani Traveller family, ideal for children practising reading at home or in school.

Halle and her family are Romani Travellers. They move around and they’re very good at fixing and making things. Halle’s family visit a village that had lots of problems at their annual running race last year.

Can Halle’s family, with their truck of tools and wood, help the community avert another disaster?

A traveller girl creates her own musical instrument from a willow branch and lots of recycled objects. She plays it enthusiastically, but it sounds terrible.

Ignoring warnings not to awaken the ogre in the hills, Ossiri goes there to practise playing her instrument. Will she wake the ogre, and will it appreciate her playing?

When a group of travelling recyclers agree to tidy up a town, their methods of working, their music and stories have a huge impact on the residents making them examine their lives.

In this tale by Romani storyteller Richard O’Neill, a pit pony meets a group of horses who pull caravans for Travellers. Enchanted by their way of life, he escapes from the mine and joins them.

Due to his small size, Polonius struggles to adjust to his new job. He is determined not to let down his new family. Can he find a use for the skills he learned from his past in the pits?

A heartwarming story about respect and new starts.

A Traveller girl with a passion for design and technology collects cans for her local recycling plant and uses the metal to renovate an elderly neighbour’s caravan.

Everyone in Kizzy’s town hates her because she’s half-gypsy – a diddakoi. But Kizzy doesn’t care. All she needs is Gran and her horse, Joe.

But when Gran dies and their wagon burns down, Kizzy is all alone. Can Kizzy survive in a hostile world and save Joe?

Louie, who was abandoned at Chipchase’s Travelling Circus as a baby, dreams of becoming a ‘Showstopper’, but Mr Chipchase keeps her hidden, tucked away in the ticket booth.

But Louie has been secretly practising her act; the tightrope and dreams of being the ‘girl who walked on air’ – she just needs to be given the chance to shine. And the circus needs her too – Wellbeloved’s rival show is stealing their crowds. Desperate, Mr Chipchase reluctantly lets Louie perform.

She is a sensation, and gets an offer from the sinister Mr Wellbeloved himself to perform – over Niagara Falls. But nothing is quite as it seems and soon Louie’s bravery is tested not just on the highwire but in confronting her past and the shady characters in the world of the circus.

Sonny devotes his weekend to helping his neighbours and personal Travellers with a variety of tasks. He uses many skills, from calculating the amount of fuel needed for a journey to restoring a caravan.

In fact, the only thing he doesn’t do over the weekend is his homework – his workbook is missing! What will his teacher say?

Nestled quietly by the railway and the river, in the Showman’s Yard, a treasure trove can be found – but only by those who really look, and really listen.

Follow Mary Ann and her travelling Showmen family as they defend their yard from developers.

Join Wee Bessie Townsley on her travels as she lives her unconventional life with her family and faithful dog Ricky while longing for the herald of spring.

Wee Bessie is Inspired by the childhood of Scottish Traveller Betsy Whyte one of Scotland’s most celebrated storytellers.

Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city.

One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are ‘sent East’. Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 16 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once.

Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives. The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold.

Rosie is an Irish traveller, who grew up moving all over England and Ireland. She didn’t find out her date of birth until she was 17 and didn’t learn to read or write until she was well into her 30s. This is her story. 

Journalist Aad Wagenaar decided to trace one of the iconic images of the Holocaust – a girl looking back from a transport wagon on its way to Auschwitz. Who was that girl? What was her fate? Did she survive?

‘Settela’ is his account of the search, which took two years and ended by meeting surviving members of the girl’s family.

From weighing twenty-eight stone and fighting a deep depression, to his amazing return to heavyweight champion of the world, Tyson Fury opens up and shares his inspiring advice and tips on diet, exercise regime and his incredible journey back to a healthier body and mind.

Frank, accessible and inspiring, ‘The Furious Method’ is a feel-good and motivating tonic, full of inspirational advice for readers on how we can all improve our physical and mental health.

Damian Le Bas grew up on a diet of Gypsy history. His great-grandmother, Nan, would tell him stories of her childhood in the ancient Romany language; the places her family stopped and worked, the ways they lived, the superstitions and lores of their people. But his own experience of life on the road was limited to Ford Transit journeys from West Sussex to Hampshire to sell flowers.

Longing to better understand his Gypsy heritage, the history of the Romany in Britain and the rhythms of their life today, Damian set out on a journey to discover the old encampment sites known only to Travellers. From winter frost to summer dawns, he travels the country to visit horse fairs, urban lay-bys and hidden Gypsy churches.

‘The Stopping Places’ shines a light on a group of people and a way of life that has been often hidden and much maligned.