Fiction Survival Stories

Hungary, 1939. Like most Hungarian Jews during the onset of World War II, Shomo Stern is sent to the front lines with the Forced Labor Services–to be worked to death under the thumb of the Nazi war machine. Fighting the bitter European winter, the battalions witness horrific events in the wake of the Nazi advance.

From Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Katherine Rundell comes an exciting new novel about a group of kids who must survive in the Amazon after their plane crashes. Fred, Con, Lila, and Max are on their way back to England from Manaus when the plane they're on crashes and the pilot dies upon landing. For days they survive alone, until Fred finds a map that leads them to a ruined city, and to a secret.

For Megan Wolford, life as she knew it came to an end after the world was decimated by an EMP. Now, she does her best to survive and protect her daughter, Caitlin. But when the young girl falls ill with a mysterious virus, Meghan must leave the safety of their home and embark on a dangerous journey to forage for medical supplies.

Akira is riding her horse in the California woods when a wildfire sparks—and grows scarily fast. How can she make it to safety when there are flames everywhere? Owen and his best friend, George, like spotting polar bears on the snowy Canadian tundra. But when one bear gets way too close for comfort, do the boys have any chance of surviving?

Fifteen-year-old Benny Imura lives in a world infested with zombies where, when a kid turns 15, he must get a job to continue receiving food rations. Benny has no interest in the family business of zombie killing, but figures he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s tried out a bunch of other jobs, and hasn’t found anything he likes. But as Benny starts training with his brother, he learns things about being human that he never expected.

Frey and Rafi are inseparable.... two edges of the same knife. But Frey's very existence is a secret. Frey is Rafi’s twin sister - and her body double. Their powerful father has many enemies, and the world has grown dangerous as the old order falls apart. So while Rafi was raised to be the perfect daughter, Frey has been taught to kill. Her only purpose is to protect her sister, to sacrifice herself for Rafi if she must.

In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no Internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents - unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers - that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world.

Frightful, the peregrine falcon who first appeared in My Side of the Mountain, is back. Her amazing journey through life continues in the face of many rousing wildlife adventures. Will she survive the wilderness, even though she was raised by a human? When an old friend rescues her from captors, Frightful soars into the unfamiliar woodlands and searches for home. Before finding her mountain, she adopts a nest of motherless peregrine chicks.

Fresh from their brief adventure to colonial times, Gabe, Elizabeth, and Marty receive their next summons from Thrylos, warning them that this will be a longer adventure and to pack appropriately. Not knowing what "longer" means, the kids do as they’re told and arrive on a deserted island in 1609, just in time to see a shipwreck on the reefs! It turns out that the ship is called the Sea Venture, and it was originally bound for the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The deserted island is called Bermuda, reputed at the time to be surrounded by monsters.

When a tornado watch is issued one Tuesday evening in June, 12-year-old Dan Hatch and his best friend, Arthur, don't think much of it. After all, tornado warnings are a way of life during the summer in Grand Island, Nebraska. But soon enough things change and little do they know that even if they do survive the storm, their ordeal will have only just begun.

From the renowned author Jack London comes two classic adventure stories about primitivism, nature, and early 20th-century life. Seen through the eyes of two dogs, their stories are distinct yet share similarities, and they have cemented London as a literary genius and writer. Including complex themes such as morality and redemption, Jack London’s classic works have stood the test of time and remain central examples of literary fiction, a must-hear for anyone interested in the brilliant works of the past.

The story in which a 16-year-old is chosen by her government to undergo The Testing, which decides if she gets to go to The University. The University is for the country’s best and brightest teens and puts the rebuilding and future leadership of the United Commowealth in their hands. During The Testing, extreme psychological and physical trials pit them against one another to determine which teens have what it takes to become a leader.

Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simultaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand.

Thirteen-year-old Juniper is full of excitement when she’s offered the chance to visit her aunt and uncle in Alaska and take part in a hunt in the Tongass National Forest. Juniper has plenty of experience hunting mule deer at home in Colorado, and she's sure she’ll be ready for whatever Alaska can throw at her. But Southeast Alaska isn’t quite what Juniper expected.

Ten-year-old George Calder can't believe his luck - he and his little sister, Phoebe, are on the famous Titanic, crossing the ocean with their aunt Daisy. The ship is full of exciting places to explore, but when George ventures into the first-class storage cabin, a terrible boom shakes the entire boat. Suddenly water is everywhere, and George's life changes forever.

It's been three months since all the adults disappeared. Gone. Food ran out weeks ago, and starvation is imminent. Meanwhile, the normal teens have grown resentful of the kids with powers. And when an unthinkable tragedy occurs, chaos descends upon the town. There is no longer right and wrong. Each kid is out for himself, and even the good ones turn murderous. But a larger problem looms.

Deep into the coldest, Midwest winter on record, an electromagnetic pulse has taken out the nation’s power grid, plunging St. Louis into frigid darkness. Can ordinary people survive the apocalypse? Pre-med student Raine Caldwell is about to find out. The government isn’t coming to rescue her. If Raine and her group are going to make it, they must save themselves. After finding themselves in a community terrorized by ruthless and dangerous people, Raine and the others in her group must pull together to find justice, when one of their own is taken.

Everyone believes Adam to be something he’s not. Sometimes that’s because he’s told them a story. Sometimes he’s told himself one. But when Adam joins an Alaskan fishing crew that’s promising quick money, the dangerous work and harsh lifestyle strip away all fabrications and force a dark-hearted exploration of who he really is. On the unforgiving Bering Sea, Adam finds the adventure and authenticity of a fisherman’s life revelatory. The labor required to seize bounty from the ocean invigorates him, and the often crude comradery accompanies a welcome, hard-earned wisdom.

In a discontented kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point - he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.

Bruce and Mike finally made it home. But the battle for the future has just begun. The Louisiana farm that Bruce and his allies had built to survive the end of the world was everything they could have hoped for — but no one had planned for the endless horde of fast, smart, and ravenous blue zombies who could think, heal, and even reproduce. Now, as they gather an armory of military weaponry from abandoned outposts all across the countryside, Bruce and his growing clan of survivors realize the truth — their compound can be the beginning of a new and rebuilt world.