Great Adventures
Suggestions from Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Pittsburgh, Pennyslvania
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org
For kids in grades 5 & up
____________________
Shipwreck at the bottom of the world : the extraordinary true story of Shackleton and the Endurance /
Jennifer Armstrong
Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land. j 919.804 Arm
Crispin : the cross of lead / Avi
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
The true confessions of Charlotte Doyle / Avi
In 1832, thirteen year old Charlotte Doyle is the only passenger aboard the sinister ship Seahawk where she is accused of murder and found guilty.
Williwaw! / Tom Bodett
In their father's absence, thirteen-year-old September and her younger brother Ivan disobey his orders by taking the boat out on their Alaska bay, where they are caught in a terrifying storm called a williwaw.
Airman / Eoin Colfer
In the late nineteenth century, when Conor Broekhart discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king, he is branded a traitor, imprisoned, and forced to mine for diamonds under brutal conditions while he plans a daring escape from Little Saltee prison by way of a flying machine that he must design, build, and trust to carry him to safety.
Gregor the Overlander / Suzanne Collins
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy. Book one in The Underland Chronicles.
The misadventures of Maude March, or, Trouble rides a fast horse / Audrey Couloumbis
After the death of the stern aunt who raised them since they were orphaned, eleven-year-old Sallie and her fifteen-year-old sister escape their self-serving guardians and begin an adventure resembling those in the dime novels Sallie loves to read.
Lost in the Barrens / Farley Mowat
Two boys become stranded in the dangerous forests of Northern Canada.
The ruins of Gorlan / John Flanagan
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger. First in The Ranger’s Apprentice series.
Inkheart / Cornelia Funke
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.
Julie of the wolves / Jean Craighead George
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Running out of time / Margaret Peterson Haddix
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a 1995 tourist site under unseen observation by heartless scientists, and it's up to Jessie to escape the village and save the lives of the dying children.
Ghost Canoe / Will Hobbs
Clues to a lost treasure and mysterious footprints lead a 14-year-old boy to suspect that all did not die in a nearby shipwreck off the Washington coast.
Stormbreaker / 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.
Journey to the river sea / Eva Ibbotson
Sent with her governess to live with the dreadful Carter family in exotic Brazil in 1910, Maia endures many hardships before fulfilling her dream of exploring the Amazon River.
The game / Diana Wynne Jones
Sent to a boisterous family gathering in Ireland by her overly strict grandmother, orphaned Hayley feels out of place until her unruly cousins include her in a special game involving travel through the mythosphere, the place where all the world's stories can be found, and where some secrets of her past are revealed.
Alabama Moon / Watt Key
For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived out in the forest in a shelter with his father. When Moon's father dies, Moon follows his father's last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves.
The cannibals / Iain Lawrence
Tom Tin and his friend Midgely--with assorted juvenile criminals--escape the ship taking them to serve their terms in Australia and head for a Pacific island, forgetting Tom's father's warnings about headhunters and cannibals.
Black duck / Janet Taylor Lisle
Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade.
The kite rider : a novel / Geraldine McCaughrean
In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.
Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
When his plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, 13 year old Brian is left alone with only a hatchet to help him survive.
The young man and the sea / Rodman Philbrick
After his mother's death, twelve-year-old Skiff Beaman decides that it is up to him to earn money to take care of himself and his father, so he undertakes a dangerous trip alone out on the ocean off the coast of Maine to try to catch a hugh bluefin tuna.
The lightning thief / Rick Riordan
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. First in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
The iceberg hermit / Arthur Roth
Shipwrecked in 1757 on an iceberg in the Arctic seas with only an orphaned polar cub for companionship, seventeen-year-old Allan begins a seemingly hopeless struggle for survival.
Night of the twisters / by Ivy Ruckman
A fictional account of the night freakish and devastating tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, as experienced by a twelve-year-old, his family, and friends.
Holes / Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
The mysterious Benedict Society and the perilous journey / Trenton Lee Stewart
Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance, all graduates of the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened and members of the Benedict Society, embark on a scavenger hunt that turns into a desperate search for the missing Mr. Benedict.
The king of Attolia / Megan Whalen Turner
Eugenides, still known as a Thief of Eddis, faces palace intrigue and assassins as he strives to prove himself both to the people of Attolia and to his new bride, their queen.
Cousins in the castle / Barbara Brooks Wallace
An orphaned English girl, abandoned in turn of the century New York City, is surrounded by villains, secrecy, and suspense.
Deathwatch / Robb White
A college student left in the middle of the desert without clothes, food, or water is hunted by an armed madman.
Leepike Ridge / N.D. Wilson
While his widowed mother continues to search for him, eleven-year-old Tom, presumed dead after drifting away down a river, finds himself trapped in a series of underground caves with another survivor and a dog, and pursued by murderous treasure-hunters.
Dealing with dragons / Patricia C. Wrede
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom. Book one in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp /
Rick Yancey
Through a series of dangerous and violent misadventures, teenage loser Alfred Kropp rescues King Arthur's legendary sword Excalibur from the forces of evil.
Look for these and other great books in
The Children’s Library
Mt. Lebanon Public Library
16 Castle Shannon Blvd.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15228
412.531.1913 6/08
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org
Catalog Search