Middle School - Survival & Adventure Reading Suggestions: Home

Brian is a city boy. Not used to living rough. Until his plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. All he has is a hatchet - and a desperate will to survive. Now Brian must learn to live the hard way - or die.

After surviving a terrible shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe discovers he is the only human on an island far from any shipping routes or rescue. At first he is devastated, but slowly, with patience and imagination, he transforms his island into a tropical paradise. For twenty-four years he lives with no human companionship - until one fateful day, when he discovers he is not alone... Puffin Classics edition has been specially abridged. %%%After surviving a terrible shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe discovers he is the only human on an island far from any shipping routes or rescue. At first he is devastated, but slowly, with patience and imagination, he transforms his island into a tropical paradise. For twenty-four years he lives with no human companionship - until one fateful day, when he discovers he is not alone... Puffin Classics edition has been specially abridged.

The Robinsons leave their home in Switzerland planning to settle half a world away. But things do not turn out as they had expected. The sole survivors of a terrible shipwreck, they wash ashore to learn that the danger has only begun. Their new world will test their courage, cleverness, endurance, and faith as they struggle to survive and create a civilization of their own in the wilderness.

'Moby Dick' is an epic tale of the conflict between man and his fate. Captain Ahab's obsessive quest to destroy the great white whale that tore off his leg leads the Pequod and its crew to disaster.

Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed.
When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mother’s warning about black people: “They are different, and they live differently.”
But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip’s head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy.

A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship.

Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of pirates, treasures and swashbuckling action on the high seas is the archetypal ripping yarn.

Twelve-year-old Ben Huntsmore is the son of a ship-owner, an only child who loves the farming life on his family's estate, Badger's Hill. But when Ben's father loses their ancestral home to pay a gambling debt, Ben reluctantly joins his father in a desperate venture to win back their home, capturing enemy trading ships off the west Australian coast. While at sea, Ben must face not just the giant waves of the Southern Ocean but also Dutch guns, as well as unexpected treachery as he realises that his almost-unknown father will sacrifice even his son to make his fortune. Only the unexpected friendships of the mysterious convict Higgins and young Indigenous sailor Guwara will help Ben survive, as well as show him the true meaning of loyalty and riches.

(Titanic series) The Titanic is meant to be unsinkable, but as it begins its maiden voyage, there's plenty of danger waiting for four of its young passengers. Paddy is a stowaway, escaping a deadly past. Sophie's mother is delivered to the ship by police - after she and Sophie have been arrested. Juliana's father is an eccentric whose riches can barely hide his madness. And Alfie is hiding a secret that could get him kicked off the ship immediately. The lives of these four passengers will be forever linked with the fate of Titanic. And the farther they get from shore, the more the danger looms.

Roald Amundsen -- hero or villain? Amundsen's South Polar conquest is an extraordinary tale which combines risk, intrigue and personal conflict. A man of striking intelligence whose brilliance in planning and anticipating the moves of his opponent propelled him into first place. He was single-minded in his thirst for world records in the most unforgiving environments. Such a man, with everything to lose, will stop at nothing to secure his goal and consequently his story is a testament to utter brilliance and ruthlessness.

This is an adventure saga set at the time of the Victorian gold rush, based on real events.

Records the courage and self-reliance of an Indian girl who lived alone for eighteen years on an isolated island off the California coast when her tribe emigrated and she was left behind. Based on a true-life story.

Nipper only wants to be one thing: a lifesaver. In his world they're larger than life, walking, talking heroes. He's too young, but he starts to train in secret, challenging himself in the Bondi surf. But his secret comes to light one hot Sunday in 1938 - a day that was to become infamous.

2006 was the second-deadliest year in the history of Everest ascents. The worst season was ten years before, when a freak storm hit the mountain, inspiring John Krakauer's classic Into Thin Air. But in 2006 the weather was perfect - the disaster was not a storm but the industry that climbing Everest has become, with too many inexperienced climbers taking insufficient precautions with unscrupulous tour operators. Nick Heil's gripping account of what happened that year takes us from the shameful fate of the British climber, David Sharp, who lay dying by the mountain track as several groups of climbers passed him by, to Lincoln Hall's miraculous survival through an unprotected night on the mountain side. It highlights the dilemmas of commercially guided climbing - especially when run out of poor countries, for rich foreigners - and examines what happens to human nature in the most extreme physical and mental conditions. Heil takes us behind the scenes of the Everest tourism operations, revealing intriguing back-story of how what was once the symbol of human beings' noblest achievements has become a site for their grubbiest dealings.

ALIVE IN THE DEATH ZONE: Mount Everest Survival, Lincoln Hall's story of climbing the world's highest mountain, being left for dead near the summit and his subsequent return to life and safety, is an incredible and exciting adventure that will inspire anyone who reads it. It's a story of survival against all odds using sheer willpower, courage and determination. Early chapters give young readers an insight into why people climb mountains, Lincoln's early interest in them and the influences that led to his passion for climbing and his quest to climb the world's highest peak. It will then focus on the 2006 expedition when Lincoln reached the summit but was left for dead because he suffered cerebral oedema when he began his descent. Miraculously, after spending a perilous night on a knife-edge crest in the Death Zone, he was found the next morning and began the descent, only to be confronted with more dangers before he reached safety. Unbeknown to Lincoln, the world, including his family, had been told he was dead, and the miraculous story of his survival made worldwide headline news. Frostbite claimed Lincoln's fingers and toes and he lost nearly twenty kilograms but his remarkable recovery and rehabilitation enabled him to write the best-selling book DEAD LUCKY.

Aron Ralston's account of his six days trapped in one of the most remote spots in America, and how one inspired act of bravery brought him home.

The sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged spermwhale in the Pacific in November 1820 set in motion one of the most dramatic sea stories of all time: the twenty sailors who survived the wreck took to three small boats (one of which was again attacked by a whale) and only eight of them survived their subsequent 90-day ordeal, after resorting to cannibalising their mates. Three months after the Essex was broken up, the whaleship Dauphin, cruising off the coast of South America, spotted a small boat in the open ocean. As they pulled alongside they saw piles of bones in the bottom of the boat, at least two skeletons' worth, with two survivors - almost skeletons themselves - sucking the marrow from the bones of their dead ship-mates.

Keen to go exploring after soccer practice, the boys of the Wild Boars soccer team ignored the sign at the cave entrance warning visitors not to enter during the monsoon season. What ensued was a high-stakes international mission which very nearly didn't succeed. The ordeal riveted millions around the world. First came the awful news that twelve Thai boys aged 11 to 16 and their young coach were missing. Then the flickering video of the huddle of anxious and hungry boys found by a pair of British divers nine days later. But the most difficult part was yet to come. Monsoon rains had raised the water level in the cave system, and the 13 were caught in an air pocket, surrounded by rising muddy water, nearly four kilometres from the cave entrance. None of them knew how to dive. Expert Australian, British, American, Chinese and other international divers joined the Thai Navy SEALs and hundreds of local volunteers to mount one of the most risky and complex rescue operations the world has ever seen. Australian doctor Richard Harris and his dive partner Craig Challen were among the last out of the cave, 18 days later. This is the complete story of the remarkable rescue at Tham Luang cave.

Ten true stories of survival against the odds: from shark attacks and blazing airships to exploding spacecraft and sinking submarines, these are real-life stories of people who have stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale.