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Suggested Adventure/Survival Fiction by Grade Level

 

Looking for action, adventure, or survival? Try checking out one of these daring tales. Grade levels are suggested, but remember that each reader is different and might find something interesting at another level. Under each grade is a link for even more titles.

Kindergarten

Even though there are rules to follow, a little girl who loves adventure has an exciting first day of kindergarten.

When dinosaurs seek adventure by taking a train ride, they find the trip has some unexpected surprises along the way.

Red Knit Cap Girl and White Bunny, with help from Mr. Owl and the Moon, take to the high seas as they set off on a journey to help the lost Polar Bear Cub find his way back to his family and his arctic home.

Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett

Sam and Dave are sure they will discover something exciting if they just keep digging their hole.

Sebastian and the Balloon by Philip Christian Stead

When Sebastian launches himself on a journey in a hot air balloon made entirely of Grandma's afghans and patchwork quilts, his boring day turns into the adventure of a lifetime.

More suggestions for Kindergarten.

First Grade

Emma in Paris by Claire Frossard

Emma the sparrow returns in a tale of acrobatics and friendship in Paris, where she enjoys her first months in the City of Light with her circus-performer cousin and a gentle cat.

Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat by Philip Christian Stead

When Jonathan's parents decide that he has gotten too old to have a stuffed animal, they trade his favorite bear, Frederick, for a toaster.  Not willing to give up his friend, Jonathan sets off aboard a boat, looking for Frederick.

On his sixth birthday, Henry Alfred Grummorson, a descendant of King Arthur and would-be knight, sets out for adventure but neither dragon, nor cyclops, nor griffin, nor leviathan is willing to engage in a real battle.

A rooster, on his way to see the world, is joined by fourteen animals along the way in this simple introduction to the meaning of numbers and sets.

The tasty treat by Tracey Hecht

In The Tasty Treat, Dawn the fox wakes up and goes looking for her friends, Tobin the pangolin and Bismark the sugar glider, to share a tasty treat--a pomelo! Using basic language, emerging readers are introduced to the Nocturnal Brigade.

More suggestions for First Grade

Second Grade

Glacier adventure by Samantha Brooke

When D.A. needs help making her story about Earth's climate exciting, Ms. Frizzle takes the class back through time to witness the lifespan of a glacier.

Second-graders Ivy and Bean set out to expel the ghost who is living in the girls' bathroom at their school.

Meet Ash's Pikachu! by Michael Teitelbaum

Discover ten-year-old Ash's first Pokémon, the relationship that formed between them, and the adventures they had together.

Quest for the heart by Susan Amerikaner

Spirited Polynesian teenager Moana sets sail in search of a fabled island and along the way teams up with her hero, the legendary demi-god Maui, to traverse the open sea

More suggestions for Second Grade.

Third Grade

Lair of the Bat Monster by Ursula Vernon

When Danny and Wendell find an injured bat at the neighborhood pool, they take it to Mexico where Danny's cousin, a bat specialist lives, but once there Danny is snatched up by a giant bat monster, and it is up to Wendell to save him.

How to test a friendship by Theanne Griffith

With the help of a fun, odd scientist, third graders Violet, Pablo, and Deepak embark on an adventure in the Maker Maze, a magical laboratory full of robots, an antigravity chamber, 3D printers, and more.

Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Roxie Warbler, the niece of a famous explorer, follows Uncle Dangerfoot's advice on how to survive any crisis when she becomes stranded on an island with a gang of school bullies and a pair of murderous bank robbers.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

An old hound that has been chained up at his hateful owner's run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations in their quest to be reunited and free.

More suggestions for Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Flora the pig ditches the sedentary life on the farm for an adventure in Antarctica, where she escapes the knife and lives her dream of pulling a sled with a team of dogs.

Alabama Moon by Watt Key

After the death of his father, ten-year-old Moon leaves their forest shelter home and is sent to an Alabama institution, becoming entangled in the outside world he has never known and making good friends, a relentless enemy, and finally a new life.

Leepike Ridge by 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.

Twelve-year-old Adam Story is challenged by the deposed ruler of Babababad and his mongoose companion to become the first youngster to travel around the world in forty days without an adult.

The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John

After a fire kills her parents, eleven-year-old Martine must leave England to live with her grandmother on a wildlife game reserve in South Africa, where she befriends a mythical white giraffe.

More suggestions for Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Ten-year-old Akiko and her newly made friends survive a skugbit storm, crash in the Moonguzzit Sea, and are captured by the army of Queen Pwip as they continue their mission to rescue the son of the king of the planet Smoo.

Eleven-year-old Melody Vega and her family visit Glacier National Park every summer, but this year Mel comes face-to-face with a terrifying grizzly bear.

96 miles by J. L. Esplin

During a massive blackout in rural Nevada, two brothers struggle to survive without their self-reliance-obsessed dad and without enough water cross the desert for help.

We are Not Eaten by Yaks by C. Alexander London

As the children of two world-famous explorers, eleven-year-old twins Celia and Oliver prefer television-watching to adventure-seeking until their father takes them to Tibet to help search for their long-lost mother.

More suggestions for Fifth Grade.

Sixth Grade

Camel Rider by Prue Mason

Two expatriates living in a Middle Eastern country, twelve-year-old Adam from Australia and Walid from Bangladesh, must rely on one another when war breaks out and they find themselves in the desert, both trying to reach the same city with no water, little food, and no common language.

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Escaping from an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl gets lost on the Alaskan tundra and is befriended by a wolf pack.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

After a devastating tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and all the things that are important in their lives.

Peak by Roland Smith

A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.

The thief knot by Kate Milford

More suggestions for Sixth Grade