Questions concerning truth, authenticity and memory are increasingly crucial as we progress through the twenty-first century, drawing further away from the lived memory of the National Socialist era (1933-1945) and its terrible impact on society. This includes the displacement of thousands of Jewish children through the Kindertransport rescue operation (1938-1939). For many children, fictional narratives continue to be their first meaningful encounter with historical events. This underlines the importance of writing narratives for child readers that depict historical events accurately and striking a balance between instruction and delight. Such considerations will be discussed, focussing on two children’s novels by Irish writers Marilyn Taylor and Claire Mulligan as case studies. In this analysis, we will discuss these authors’ motives for writing stories depicting the experiences of Kindertransportees, their representations of this particular historical context and the experiences of child exiles in their works for current and future generations of young readers.