Denise
Stark
English
112B
Fall
2006
The Value of Adventure
Stories for Young Adults:
An Annotated
Bibliography
With
today�s computer, media, and Internet savvy teenagers, it�s often more
difficult to entice them into reading books. By allowing them to choose books that appeal to their
individual interest, they are more likely to find genres that they can relate
to. Adventure stories fall into a
category of entertainment type literature that is certain to appeal to a wide
variety of readers. Adventure
stories have danger, excitement, and are often fast-paced, all of which young
adult readers desire in a novel. In
Literature for Young Adults, Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilson
write, � We would be on safer ground if we simply accepted �Rosenberg�s Law of
Reading: Never apologize for your
reading tastes�� (63). With
this in mind, if it�s adventure stories that capture the attention of young
readers, then let them read on.
These types of stories often deal with person-against-person or person-against-nature. Person-against-self also occurs in
adventure stories, but it�s usually not until the protagonist comes up against
problems he/she may not be able to handle (64).
Adventure novels are
prized for their story-telling; therefore, they�re used mostly for pleasure
reading. The characters must be
believable, and because readers are more interested in the action than the
dialogue, long drawn-out descriptive narratives probably won�t be
appreciated. The focus is on the
danger or the possibility of danger.
These fast-moving stories offer reluctant readers reasons to find
adventure in books. Even though
adventure novels may not be the first choice for teachers to turn to in the
classroom, they are a valuable source of entertainment, fantasy, and pleasure
for a reluctant reader and should be valued as such. Teachers should consider keeping a collection of adventure
novels in their classroom for students to check-out for personal reading time
either at home or in class during free time.
Another reason that a
wide variety of teens may enjoy adventure novels is that they are available in
almost any time period from present to historical past. There�s something for everyone.
On
page 64 of their book, Donelson and Nilson state that a good adventure story
should contain the following elements:
With all of these characteristics in mind, it�s
no wonder adventure novels are often favorites for young readers.
The following annotated
bibliography includes ten adventure novels for teenage boys and ten for teenage
girls. I�ve divided the list into the
two sections, but it should be noted that just because a book is on the �girls�
list, in no way does that suggest that a boy would not enjoy it, and vice
versa. It�s also important to note
that each book on the list has been recommended by the American Library
Association.
ADVENTURE NOVELS FOR TEENAGE GIRLS
Avi.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. New York: Avon Books, 1990.
Summary: As the lone "young lady" on a
transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous
and the crew rebellious. �Not
every teenage girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found
guilty. But I was just such a
girl, and my story is worth relating even if it did happen years ago. Be warned, however: If strong ideas and actions offend you,
read no more. Find another
companion to share your idol hours.
For my part, I intend to tell the truth as I lived it� (The True
confessions of Charlotte Doyle 1).
Cooney, Caroline. Flight #116 Is Down. New
York: Scholastic, Inc. 1992.
Summary: Mustering strength and courage she
never knew she had, teenager Heidi Landseth, helps rescue suffering and dying
victims of a plane crash on her family's property, and the experience changes
her life forever. (From the book jacket)
Creech, Sharon. The Wanderer.
New
York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Summary: Thirteen-year-old Sophie is the only
girl amongst the surly crew of The Wanderer, made up of her three
uncles and two cousins. They sail
across the Atlantic toward England, the land of Bompie, her grandfather. The sea calls to Sophie�promising
adventure and the chance to explore and discover. But the personal journey she takes brings her deeper into a
forgotten past than she ever knew she could travel to. Through Sophie�s and her
thirteen-year-old cousin Cody�s travel logs, the amazing experiences of these
six wanderers and their perilous journey unfold. (From the book jacket)
Hobbs, Will. Downriver. New
York: Simon & Schuster,
1996.
Summary: No adults, no permit, no river map.
15-year-old Jessie and her six companions from Discovery Unlimited, an outdoor
ed program she's been sent to by her father, "borrow" the company's
rafting gear and take off down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon on
their own. Floating beneath sheer red walls, camping on white sand beaches,
exploring caves and waterfalls, Jessie and the others are at first having the
time of their lives. Pursued by helicopters, they boldly push on into the
black-walled inner gorge, the heart of the Grand Canyon, only to encounter huge
rapids, bone-chilling rain, injuries, and conflict within the group. What will
be the consequences of their reckless adventure? (http://www.willhobbsauthor.com/bookspages/downriverpage.html)
---.
Jackie�s Wild Seattle. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Summary: How do you rescue a coyote trapped in
the elevator of a Seattle office building? How do you save an injured seal at
the bottom of a cliff with the tide coming in? Fourteen-year-old Shannon Young,
visiting from New Jersey, is about to find out. Shannon and her little brother, Cody, are in for a summer of
breathless, sometimes reckless, often hilarious adventure visiting their Uncle
Neal, who drives an ambulance for a wildlife rescue center called JACKIE'S WILD
SEATTLE. When Uncle Neal is injured by a red-tailed hawk, Shannon summons her
courage and starts rescuing the animals herself. (http://www.willhobbsauthor.com/bookspages/jackieswspage.html)
Murphy, Claire Rudolf. To the Summit.
New
York: Lodestar Books, 1992.
Summary: A child of divorce, seventeen-year-old Sarah Janson
has trained for months in anticipation of this day. She and her father are part of a small expedition that will
attempt to climb Alaska�s Mount McKinley.
Sarah is athletic, competitive and sure she has what it takes to survive
frigid cold, lethal crevasses, avalanches that can happen without warning. Sarah�s journey is one that will take
her deep inside herself as well as her view of herself and her father expands
along with the majestic landscape that surrounds them. (From the book jacket)
O�Dell, Scott. Black Star,
Bright Dawn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Summary: They were a team�the young Eskimo girl
and the white dog, part husky but mostly wolf, with the ice-blue eyes and the
scar on his forehead�a team, yes, but in some ways, Black Star was the
leader. Bright Dawn had never
expected to find herself taking her father�s place in the Iditarod, the
challenging dog race that covers more than a thousand miles between anchorage
and Nome. Bright Dawn comes to
know how much she has to rely on her lead dog, Black Star, not just for the
race but for her life. (From the
book jacket)
---.
Sarah Bishop. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980.
Summary: Sarah Bishop isn�t a Tory. She isn�t a Patriot. Sarah Bishop is a fifteen-year-old
girl. The Revolutionary War has
come to her village, and the Patriots have made her an orphan without a home. Now the British army is after her for a
crime she didn�t commit. Running
for her life, Sarah finds a cave in the words. Alone, she makes her home there. The wild animals, the terrible hardships are not as bad as
what she has left behind. Sarah
Bishop vows never to trust anyone again.
The war will end. Peace
will come. But will peace ever
find Sarah Bishop? (From the book
jacket)
Paulsen, Gary. The Night the White Deer Died. Nashville:
T. Nelson, 1978.
Summary: An Indian brave stands poised to shoot
a white deer drinking from a pool of water in the moonlight. It is only a dream
-- a recurring nightmare that haunts fifteen-year-old Janet Carson -- but it is
a dream that will change her forever.
Janet, one of the few Anglo teens in the New Mexico art colony where she
lives with her mother, feels isolated and alone. For some reason she is drawn
to Billy Honcho, an old alcoholic Indian who begs some money from her. As they
get to know each other, the meaning of Janet's dream begins to become clear to
her, and Billy becomes the brave in her dreams. (http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780440210924)
Pullman, Philip. The Tin Princess.
New York: Random House,
1994.
Summary: The year is 1882, and three young
Londoners�Becky, Jim, and Adelaide�journey to a tiny country high in the
mountains of Central Europe.
They�re an unlikely trio to lead a nation, but when Adelaide�s husband,
the new king, is assassinated, they have little choice. Adelaide, a Cockney commoner, is
crowned princess�then queen�of Razkavia.
She rises to her new station, playing international politics with the
help of Becky and Jim. But before
long, ominous forces threaten the balance of power, thrusting Adelaide and her
friends into a fight for the crown�and their very lives. (From the book jacket)
ADVENTURE STORIES FOR TEENAGE BOYS
Bunting, Eve. Jumping
the Nail. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991.
Summary: When teenagers
in a California coastal community challenge each other to "jump the
Nail"--leap from dangerous cliffs into the ocean--group pressure and
manipulative relationships quickly drive the game out of control.
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/eve-bunting/jumping-nail.htm)
Carter, Alden R. Between a Rock and a Hard Place. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1995.
Summary: It�s time for Mark�s trip through the
Boundary Waters, where he will canoe, camp, and fish his way into manhood, just
like his father and grandfather before him. Mark has to go with his cousin Randy, who�s a diabetic. Randy uses his condition as an excuse
not to pull his own weight. Mark�s
not surprised when the trip gets off to a rocky start. He figures things will get better. But he�s wrong. Now, Mark and Randy are trapped
together in the middle of nowhere, with no one to depend on but each
other. Everything that could have
gone wrong has. Getting along
doesn�t matter anymore. They need
to fight to stay alive. (From the
book jacket)
Hobbs, Will. Far North. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
Summary: From the
window of a small float plane, 15-year-old Gabe Rogers is getting his first
look at Canada's magnificent Northwest Territories with Raymond Providence, his
roommate from boarding school. Below is the spectacular Nahanni River:
wall-to-wall whitewater racing between sheer cliffs and plunging over Virginia
Falls. The pilot sets the plane down on the lake-like surface of the upper
river for a closer look at the thundering falls. Suddenly the engine quits. The
only sound is a dull roar downstream, as the Cessna drifts helplessly toward
the falls. . . . With the brutal subarctic winter fast approaching, Gabe and
Raymond soon find themselves stranded in Deadmen Valley. Trapped in a frozen
world of moose, wolves, and bears, two boys from vastly different cultures come
to depend on each other for their very survival.
(http://www.willhobbsauthor.com/bookspages/farnorthpage.html)
---.
The Maze. New York, HarperCollins,
1998.
Summary: Just fourteen, Rick Walker is alone, on
the run, and desperate. Stowing away in the back of a truck, he suddenly finds
himself at a dead end, out in the middle of nowhere. The Maze. In this surreal
landscape of stark redrock spires and deep sandstone canyons, Rick stumbles
into the remote camp of Lon Peregrino, a bird biologist who is releasing
fledgling California condors back into the wild. Intrigued by the endangered
condors and the strange bearded man dedicated to saving them, Rick decides to
stay on. When two men with a vicious dog drive up in a battered old Humvee,
Rick discovers that Lon and his birds are in grave danger. In the story's
heart-stopping climax, Rick risks his own life flying Lon's hang-glider in a
dramatic attempt to save his friend. (http://www.willhobbsauthor.com/bookspages/mazepage.html)
---. Wild Man Island.
New York:
HarperCollins, 2002.
Summary: On the last day of a sea kayak trip in
southeast Alaska, fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway paddles away from the
group. He�s on a mission of the
heart. His father, an
archeologist, died only a few miles away.
A sudden gale propels Andy across the strait. He swims ashore, freezing and barefoot, onto Admiralty
Island, an immense wilderness of forests, rain, and bears. When hopes of rescue fades, and fearing
starvation, Andy walks deeper into the wild and into danger. He encounters a dog and a wild man
dressed in cedar-bark clothing, carrying a stone-tipped spear. Andy follows them to their cave where
he enters the adventure of a lifetime.
What�s at stake are the discoveries Andy�s father died trying to find,
the answers to the most exciting puzzle in American archeology�who were the
first Americans? (From book
jacket)
Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn. New York: Harper Collins, 2003.
Summary: Matt Cruse
is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above
the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's
always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant
as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist
who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after
Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's
ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely
real and utterly mysterious. (From: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/BookDetail.aspx?isbn13=9780060531829)
Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.
Summary: Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on a
journey to visit his father when the single engine plane in which he is flying
crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds
himself alone in the Canadian Wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a
tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother has given him as a present�and
the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart ever since his parent�s
divorce. But now Brian has no time
for anger, self-pity, or despair�it will take all his know-how and
determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive. (From the book jacket)
---.
The Voyage of the Frog. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing,
Inc. 1989.
Summary: A
gripping survival tale begins when David's favorite uncle dies after asking
David to scatter his ashes at sea. David sails his uncle's small boat without
checking weather reports, and a sudden storm creates disaster. Low on food,
becalmed, attacked by a shark, and escorted by killer whales, David hangs on
against the odds. A harrowing, uplifting adventure short enough for reluctant
readers. (http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/Voyage-Frog.html
)
Stevermer, Caroline. River Rats. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company,
1992.
Summary: The Mississippi is a toxic brown
river. A paddle wheeler that holds
occasional outdoor concerts is run by the River Rats, a troop of orphans who
survived the nuclear holocaust that destroyed the States. Once-huge cities are now ruins, haunted
by gangs of savage children. And
the concerts the River Rats play are post-apocalyptic rock-and-roll, a music as
rough and ragged as the musicians who perform it. When the Rats rescue a stranger from the poisonous river, suddenly
all the problems of the old world threaten to put an end to the Rats� travels
forever. (From the book jacket)
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1884.
New York: William Morrow
and Company,
1994.
[Last but certainly not
least, no list of adventure novels would be complete without the American
literature classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.]
Summary: For generations, young and old have
delighted in the unforgettable adventures of runaways Huck Finn and Jim, a
slave. In vivid, often gripping
prose, Twain brings to life both the beauty and the folly of pre-Civil War life
along the Mississippi�from the radiant dawn on the river to Huck�s terrifying
encounters with his father, as well as the outrageous antics of the king and
the Duke and Tom Sawyer�s outlandish plans to free Jim. Told from Huck�s point of view, Huckleberry
Finn is
also a boy�s journey toward adulthood.
(From the book jacket)