Avid naturalist Jean Craighead George penned this tale of 12-year old Sam Gribley who strikes out on his own in the Catskill Mountains in search of the peace of the great outdoors, away from the busy city and his great-grandfather's farm. Along the way, he learns to live off the land in harmony with nature, makes animal friends, including training his falcon, Frightful, and becomes friends with other wilderness sojourners.
A plane crash strands Brian Robeson, a 13 year-old New Yorker, in the Canadian wilderness with only a hatchet for survival. The first story relates his struggle to survive on his own, learning to hunt, fish, build a shelter and create fire. Author Gary Paulsen continues the saga with stories that explore an alternate ending to the original tale and Brian's further adventures when the call of the wilderness proves too much to resist.
Karana is only 12 years old when her tribe is forced to emigrate because of an Aleut attack. But she refuses to sail away without her brother and is left alone on a remote island off the coast of California. The story follows her courageous 18-year journey of courage and resilience as she makes a home for herself, learns forgiveness and self-reliance. Author Scott O'Dell received a 1961 Newbery medal for this novel.
Gordon Korman's trilogy recounts the survival adventure of five troubled teenagers shipwrecked on an uncharted island. With the captain washed overboard and the desertion of the first mate, the castaways, one of them injured and suffering amnesia, struggle to survive on an island with a deadly secret while hiding from a band of murderous smugglers.
Branded a coward because of his fear of the sea, Mafatu, the protagonist of Armstrong Sperry's tale of facing and overcoming fear, sets out on a lone journey of self-discovery to find his courage.
The only novel of Swiss pastor Johann Wyss, this classic tale recounts the adventures of the Robinson family, stranded on a deserted tropical island on their way to plant a colony in New Guinea. Explorations uncover many resources with which they are able to provide for all their needs and create a new life for themselves on their isolated island.
Daniel Defoe's time honored tale relates the story of a British sailor who washes up on a desert island after a shipwreck somewhere in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. Initially he is frantic and discontent, but over the course of the 24 years he is stranded on the island, he salvages supplies from the ship and creates a home for himself, building a fort, taming animals, learning to supply his own food and rescuing a native man from cannibals for companionship.
Another masterful tale by Newbery medal-winning author Jean Craighead George tells the story of 13 year-old Miyax, an Eskimo girl who discovers that her arranged marriage saddles her with a mentally unstable husband. She summons the courage to run away and loses her way in the Alaskan tundra. She learns to survive with the help of the wolf pack that she befriends while attempting to reach her pen pal in San Francisco.