Fiction Survival Stories

For the past four years, Rick Walker has been shuffled between foster care and group homes. At 14, he’s a kid nobody wants or cares about. Now he’s headed for Blue Canyon Detention Center. For Rick, life is a maze full of dead ends. But when he is threatened at Blue Canyon and runs away, Rick finds himself in a real maze - the enormous rocky expanse of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. There, Rick meets a biologist who has devoted his life to reintroducing the condor to its natural habitat. As Rick joins him to protect the giant birds, the teenager will begin to see choices instead of dead ends.

It was supposed to be just one night in the cabin: one night for Lottie and her brand new stepsister, Jade, to try to get along. When a solar flare causes a massive blackout—no power or cell signal—Lottie knows they've got a long night ahead of them. Then, in the dark, someone else shows up at the cabin—a stranger named Alex, claiming to be lost and needing shelter from the coming snowstorm. But later that night, Lottie spies him in the driveway talking to two mysterious men in a pickup truck, and she's sure he's lying about why he's here.

After a mysterious blackout shatters society, Samantha and her dog Dean journey through looted cities and treacherous wilds. Haunted by her parents’ deaths and unable to save a wounded survivor, she finds an unlikely ally in Gabriel. As danger closes in, a hidden bunker may be their last chance at hope.

Weeks after arriving in Colorado to start a new farm, the Hollowell family is looking at disaster when 15-year-old Owen witnesses the theft of their mules. Learning that Hercules and Peaches will likely be sold to the mines, Owen sets out to track the rustler over the mountains. It’s all Ma can do to hold back little brother Till, who’s more than a handful. The outlaw’s trail leads to Telluride, the turbulent “City of Gold.” Owen gets help from a resourceful girl named Molly and dubious assistance from Till, who shows up on the train from Durango.

Finn Driscoll is counting down the days until she can leave for college. With her beloved brother, Noah, in a coma and her high school social life sinking every day, she’s ready for a fresh start. Until the night she sees Noah in a dream. He begs for her help. At first, she shakes it off as just a nightmare. Then it happens again. And again. Frightened, Finn confides in her grandmother, only to learn the shocking truth about her family. They’re Dreamwalkers - heroes who step into the River of Dreams and fight the monsters in other people’s nightmares.

When 11-year-old Jack Martel crawls out of his pup tent on the first morning of his camping trip with his mom in Acadia National Park, he notices right away that something isn’t right. Where is his mom’s tent, and their rental car? And where is his mom? Any other kid might panic, might even go to the police. But Jack isn’t like other kids. And his mom isn’t like other moms. Jack knows that it’s up to him to find his mom before someone figures out what’s happened and separates them forever.

National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson takes the wheel of this thrilling chapter in the race for survival. The journey through the rift becomes even rockier as the survivors are forced to take to the water, crossing a vast deepwater basin on improvised boats. To make it, Molly and the others must work together, but a rift of a different kind is forming among the survivors. If they aren't careful, it could eat them alive.

A contemporary My Side of the Mountain, Stranded is the story of a wilderness-hungry Black girl from Manhattan whose journey in the Adirondack mountains becomes a nail-biting story of courage, independence, and survival.

The story begins when the young teen who suffers a head injury emerges from a sailboat that ran aground during a hurricane. The trauma of discovering she is amnesic is soon dwarfed by the realization she is totally alone. Gradually, her expectation that people will return to the community they evacuated is replaced with the startling truth that everyone is gone. Vanished from the face of the Earth. Hindered by a selective memory that affords only brief glimpses of her past, Ivy and her new friend Tonka—a West Highland White Terrier—set off on a quest to find other people.

Discovering their newfound tradition and love for camping at the Grand Tetons, The Campground Kids anticipate their next adventure—exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Children's Blizzard or the Great Blizzard of 1888 caught people completely by surprise and resulted in 235 fatalities, including several children in one-room schoolhouses. What made the storm so deadly was the timing, the suddenness, and the brief spell of warmer weather that preceded it. Lauren Tarshis will place a resilient 11-year-old character in the midst of this deadly blizzard, fighting their way out.

Nick has always loved camping, but his cousins, Andy and Devin, aren't outdoors guys - they're jocks. Nick isn't even sure why his cousins wanted to go on the camping trip. They don't listen to his warnings about campfires and bears, and they make fun of everything Nick does. When Devin finds himself in real danger, can Nick save him in time?

Listen as Major James King explores the new world on which he mysteriously appears. James has no idea where he is or how he got there. All Major King knows is that this place definitely isn't the command center to which he was supposed to be transported.

In The Circus Ship, a very special craft is carrying all manner of circus animals. But when it nearly sinks, out spill all the animals. Luckily, they make it to a nearby island. And there they happily settle in - until the mean old circus owner tries to round them up.

New York. 2120. America has been decimated, wiped out from the second Civil War. Survivors, far and few between, join violent gangs, predators who live in the big cities. There is only one rule to their stadium, where opponents are made to fight to the death: No one survives. Ever.

After camping in Rocky Mountain National Park, Jake and his friends travel to the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado. Exploring the heart of the dunes, they stumble upon something both unexpected and dangerous. Through more twists and turns, Jake’s friendships and integrity are tested by choices that will demand smarts and courage.

It's been days since Buzz, Vanessa, Carter, and Jane were stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the South Pacific. Four kids left to fend for themselves. No adults. No supplies. They've managed to make fire and they've even found food. But they've just lost their only shelter and quite possibly their one chance at being rescued. Now they'll have to venture even deeper into the jungles of Nowhere Island just to stay alive. But the island holds secrets of a dark past.

The debut literary thriller that launched the career of the bestselling author of Before the Fall and the creator of the show Fargo. Linus Owen is a young professor of conspiracy theory at a small college just outside San Francisco. His marriage is foundering and his wife, Claudia, has gone to...

A curious cat plus a big fall leads to squashed confidence. How this cat bounces back will encourage readers everywhere to try, try again. Eye-catching art and crisp graphic paneling invite even the youngest of children to get back on their feet to explore the city alongside Tiptop Cat.

School Library Journal calls this moving tale by Myron Uhlberg a "remarkable homage to New Orleans". A Storm Called Katrina follows Louis Daniel, a 10-year-old boy from New Orleans’ Ninth Ward who loves to play the horn just like his idol, Louis Armstrong. The morning after the devastating hurricane rips through his neighborhood, Louis - with his beloved cornet in tow - must brave the rising flood waters and seek shelter with his family at the Superdome.