Adventure for Teens

Adventure/Survival

These titles are located throughout the library; please find the location in the catalog by clicking on the title.

Armstrong, Jennifer – The Kindling (224 pages) – In 2007, a small band of children have joined together in a Florida town, trying to survive in a world where it seems that all the adults have been killed off by a catastrophic virus. The First of the Fire-us Trilogy.

Bell, William - Forbidden City (197 pages) - Seventeen-year-old Alex Jackson is thrilled when his father, a cameraman, asks Alex to join him on assignment in China. They both will become part of the great historical events that sweep China in the spring of 1989. As students and civilians demonstrate in Tian An Men Square for changes in the government, Alex feels the thrill of being a reporter. But his excitement turns to horror when he witnesses the death of his Chinese friend. Alex and his father know they must communicate the story to the rest of the world, but at what cost to their own lives?

Bowler, Tim – Apocalypse (335 pages) - Fifteen-year-old Kit and his parents must ground their sinking sailboat on a rocky island inhabited by a primitive sect who believe the stranded family has been sent by the devil.

Bunting, Eve - Jumping the Nail (148 pages) - The "nail" is a 90 foot cliff dropping into the water. "Jumping it" is jumping off, because of horrendous accidents it hasn't been done in years. Still, Scooter and Elisa are determined to jump the nail.

Cole, Stephen – Thieves Like Us (349 pages) – A mysterious benefactor hand-picks a group of teen geniuses to follow a set of clues leading to the secrets of everlasting life, secrets which they must steal and for which they risk being killed.

Cooney, Caroline B. –

Flash Fire ( (198 pages) - A girl's wish for a more exciting life comes true when a fire sweeps the wealthy neighborhood where she lives in Los Angeles.
Flight No. 116 is Down (216 pages) - With a lightening pace, the author depicts the drama and human interest inherent in disaster.

Cormier, Robert - After the First Death (233 pages) - Events of the hijacking of a bus of children by terrorists seeking the return of their homeland are described from the perspectives of a hostage, a terrorist, an Army general involved in the rescue operation, and his son, chosen as the go-between.

Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe (302 pages) – English sailor, Robinson Crusoe, is marooned on a deserted island, and struggles to survive in extraordinary circumstances.

Golding, William – Lord of the Flies (243 pages) - The classic tale of a group of English schoolboys who are left stranded on an unpopulated island, and who must confront not only the defects of their society but also the defects of their own natures.

Goldman, William – The Princess Bride (283 pages) - A classic fairy tale romance tells the story of a drunken swordsman and a gentle giant who come to the aid of Westley, a handsome farm boy, and Buttercup, a princess in dire need of rescue from the evil schemers surrounding her.

Gould, Steven - Wildside (316 pages) - Charlie’s Uncle Max has left Charlie a fortune, in the form of a ranch with a gate which goes to an unsullied parallel universe rich with minerals and wildlife. Who has the rights to that world? Who cares?

Halam, Ann –

Dr. Franklin’s Island (245 pages) - When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical island and then imprisoned by a doctor.
Siberia (262 pages) – After spending two years at a prison school, thirteen-year-old Sloe sets off on a trek across frozen wastelands, tending to the secret “seeds” of wild animals her mother left in her care, trying to reach a new life for all of them.

Hobbs, Will - Downriver (204 pages) - "Hoods in the Woods" is the nickname a group of teens have adopted for their survival course in mountainous Colorado. All does not go as planned when they ditch their instructor and venture out on their own.

Hokenson, Terry – The Winter Road (175 pages) – Seventeen-year-old Willa, still grieving over the death of her older brother and the neglect of her father, decides to fly a small airplane to fetch her mother from Northern Ontario, but when the plane crashes she is alone in the snowy wilderness.

Jaramillo, Ann – La Linea (131 pages) – When fifteen-year-old Miguel’s time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister’s determination to join him soon imperils them both.

Kipling, Rudyard - Captains Courageous (182 pages) - After being washed overboard from an ocean liner, a spoiled millionaire's son is rescued by New England fishermen who put him to work on their boat.

MacPhail, Catherine – Underworld (284 pages) – Five Scottish teenagers must deal with their own fears and rivalries when they are trapped in caverns on an island in the North Sea.

Marsden, John - Tomorrow When the War Began (286 pages) - Imagine returning from a camping trip in the Australian outback to find your house empty and armed strangers patrolling your town.

Mazer, Harry - The Last Mission (182 pages) - In 1944 a 15-year-old Jewish boy tells his family he will travel in the West but instead, enlists in the United States Air Corps and is subsequently taken prisoner by the Germans.

Mazer, Norma Fox - The Solid Gold Kid (219 pages) - A millionaire's son and four other teens are kidnapped.

McKernan, Victoria – Shackleton’s Stowaway (317 pages) - A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of the toes of his left foot to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.

Mikaelsen, Ben – Touching Spirit Bear (241 pages) - After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

O'Brien, Robert C. - Z for Zachariah (249 pages) - Seemingly the only person left alive after a nuclear war, a sixteen-year-old girl is relieved to see a man arrive into her valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must somehow escape.

Paulsen, Gary

Dogsong (171 pages) - An Eskimo youth faces hardship and danger when he ventures alone by dogsled into the wilderness.
Hatchet (195 pages) - After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.

Sedgwick, Marcus – Floodland (148 pages) - After global warming causes the sea to rise until cities in England become islands, ten-year-old Zoe goes on a harrowing solitary boat journey to search for her parents.

Stephens, J.B. – The Big Empty (204 pages) – After half the world’s population is killed by a plague, seven teenagers seek a better life in a nightmarish future by deciphering coded messages and trying to avoid the Slashers.

Sweeney, Joyce - Free Fall (229 pages) - A trip to explore a nearby cave becomes twenty-four hours of danger and darkness for four teens caught underground.

Taylor, Theodore - The Weirdo (289 pages) - Seventeen-year-old Chip Clewt fights to save the black bears in the Powhaten National Wildlife Refuge.

Voigt, Cynthia

On Fortune's Wheel (276 pages) - In this historical adventure, a young runaway couple are captured by pirates and sold into slavery.
The Wings of a Falcon (467 pages) - Fourteen-year-old Oriel and his friend Griff flee the slavery of Damall's Island and seek a new life on the mainland, where they face raiding Wolfers, rival armies, and other dangers.

Weaver, Will –

Memory Boy (152 pages) - Sixteen-year-old Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.
Claws (232 pages) - Jed and Laura, two popular Minnesota high school students, find their seemingly perfect lives suddenly in chaos when they discover that each has a parent who is having an affair with the other.

Wells, Rosemary - Through the Hidden Door (264 pages) - Two young boys stumble upon the remains of an ancient underground mystery.

White, Andrea – Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 ( (327 pages) – In the year of 2083, five fourteen-year-olds who were deprived by chance of the opportunity to continue their educations reenact Scott’s 1910-1913 expedition to the South Pole as contestants on a reality television show, secretly aided by a Department of Entertainment employee.

White, Robb - Deathwatch (228 pages) - Needing money for school, a college boy accepts a job as guide on a desert hunting trip and nearly loses his life.