Good Reads: Adventure and Survival
Today is 12/2/2008
Flash Fire (YA COO)
by Caroline B. Cooney
As a fire sweeps through a canyon near Los Angeles, teenagers Danna and Hall Press and other children whose parents are not around must work together to save themselves.
A Girl Named Disaster (YA FAR)
by Nancy Farmer
While fleeing from Mozambique to Zimbabwe to escape an unwanted marriage, Nhamo, an eleven-year-old Shona girl, struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in doing so comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.
Jason’s Gold (YA HOB)
by Will Hobbs
When news of the discovery of gold in Canada’s Yukon Territory in 1897 reaches fifteen-year-old Jason, he embarks on a 10,000 mile journey to strike it rich.
Stormbreaker (YA HOR, YA CD HOR, DVD FAMILY ALE)
by Anthony Horowitz
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6. This is the first book in the Alex Rider series.
Tomorrow When the War Began (YA MAR, YA CD MAR)
by John Marsden
Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has been invaded and they must hide to stay alive. This is the first book in the Tomorrow series.
Shackleton’s Stowaway (YA MCK)
by Victoria McKernan
This is a fictionalized account of the adventures of the eighteen-year-old Perce Blackbarrow, who stowed away on the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition. During the two year journey, their ship, Endurance, is crushed by ice and endures many hardships.
Touching Spirit Bear (YA MIK)
by Ben Mikaelsen
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. He is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
The Angel Experiment (YA PAT, YA CD PAT)
by James Patterson
After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the “birdkids”, who are a result of a genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose. This is the first book in the Maximum Ride series.
Hatchet (YA PAU, YA CD PAU)
by Gary Paulsen
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 his mother gave him, and learning also to survive his parent’s divorce.
Peak (YA SMI, YA CD SMI)
by Roland Smith
Fourteen-year-old Peak accompanies his father on an expedition to Mount Everest. It is Peak’s goal to be the youngest person to summit the great mountain.
Free Fall: A Novel (YA SWE)
by Joyce Sweeney
While trapped in a cave in a Florida forest, two brothers reveal to each other and their friends the truth about their previously hidden feelings.
Lord of the Kill (YA TAY)
by Theodore Taylor
With his parents in India, sixteen-year-old Ben Jepsen is in charge of Los Coyotes Preserve, a refuge for big cats near Los angeles, when two powerful groups try to shut it down by intimidation, murder, and kidnapping the largest tiger in captivity.
Red Sea (YA TUL)
by Diane Tullson
When fourteen-year-old Libby, her Mom, and her new step-dad Duncan set out on a year-long sailing adventure, Libby believes missing her friends and being forced to spend time with her mom and Duncan is the worst thing that could happen to her. Then, their sailboat is attacked by violent modern-day pirates.