Our middle grade book spotlight this week is on books that are all about survival!!! These survival stories will keep you on the edge of your seat as you will be along for the journey with the main characters, making decisions that will either lead to their eventual rescue or their deadly demise. I love survival stories because it makes me wonder what would I do if I found myself in these circumstances and I am sure you will be as well. We have a great mix of realistic as well as fantasy and even some dystopian which will leave you wondering what is going to happen next! These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #youthsurvival as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new middle grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
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 to cross the desert for help.
Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart--The Slabhenge Reformatory for Troubled Boys is a decaying fortress on a remote island, inhabited only by the 15 boys sentenced to live there and the adults hired to supervise them. It's also 12-year-old Jonathan Grisby's home for the next 10 weeks, and he accepts the punishment he feels he deserves. When a lightning bolt strikes, killing every adult at the reformatory, the boys are suddenly left to fend for themselves. They are enjoying their freedom until another storm strikes, leaving the boys in danger of dying themselves, and forcing Jonathan to face his past in order to save himself and the others.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen--After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
Horizon: Survival is No Game by Scott Westerfeld--Eight young survivors of an Arctic plane crash are shocked to open the door not to a cold, icy landscape but to a strange jungle. With little food and water, the kids must work together to make their way in a dangerous environment full of threats like they've never seen before.
The Big Dark by Rodman Phibrick--During one of the most spectacular Northern Lights in memory, a massive solar flare hits the Earth, knocking out the power grid. Charlie Cobb and the residents of a remote New Hampshire village at first band together to share food and resources, but quickly chaos and a breakdown of authority makes life dangerous. Charlie must go on a perilous journey to rescue his mother, stalked by wild animals and armed citizens alike, and find a way to survive.
Apocalypse Bow Wow by James Proimos--After all humans disappear into thin air, the animals are left behind. Dog buddies Brownie and Apollo, unable to find their owners, decide to set out in the world to find food and water, and maybe build a new society out of the pets that are left behind.