Adventure books for teens
Adventure books for teens throw readers into high-stakes journeys packed with action, discovery, and plenty of challenges. The settings range from real-world backdrops to historical eras or full-on fantasy realms, but the focus is always on growth through adventure. What makes them click with teens is the mix of fast-paced excitement and bigger themes like friendship, survival, identity, and tough choices. These stories keep pages turning while also building resilience, sparking empathy, and sharpening critical thinking. This list features books by Suzanne Collins, Sarah J. Maas, Veronica Roth, Marie Lu, Ruta Sepetys, Jason Reynolds, Brandon Sanderson, Jack London, Mark Twain, and Gary Paulsen.
Adventure books for teens – our recommendations
Independence Hall by Roland Smith. 
The Living by Matt de la Peña. 
I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall. 
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. 
The River by Gary Paulsen. 
First Test Graphic Novel by Tamora Pierce, illustrated by Devin Grayson and Becca Farrow. 
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp. 
True Grit by Charles Portis. 
Michael Vey by Richard Paul Evans. 
Miles Morales Suspended by Jason Reynolds. 
Renegades by Marissa Meyer. 
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson. 
The Lost by Natasha Preston. 
Legend by Marie Lu. 
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. 
Divergent by Veronica Roth. 
Gone by Michael Grant. 
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. 
Peak by Roland Smith. 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. 
Chasing Embers by Glenn Beck. 
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. 
Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw. 
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. 
The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London. 
Golden Son by Pierce Brown. 
Tikta’liktak by James Houston. 
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. 
London Calling by Edward Bloor. 
The Dare by Natasha Preston. 
The Island by Natasha Preston. 
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. 
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. 
Under the Surface by Diana Urban. 
The Loss of the Burying Ground by J Anderson Coats. 
Zombie Apocalypse Running Club by Carrie Mac. 
Rise by Freya Finch. 
Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby. 
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall. 
Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis. 
The Maze Runner by James Dashner. 
A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Click the buttons below to purchase all of the books in this adventure books list, as well as classroom sets of any of these books and many more, from Bookshop.org. Or buy the 20 most popular titles from this list from Amazon – ideal for gifts or stocking your school library. If you are ordering from outside the US, have a look at our ‘worldwide orders’ page which makes this process easy.
Buy from Bookshop.Org Buy from Amazon Worldwide orders
Disclosure: we are an affiliate of Bookshop.org and we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase; as an Amazon Associate k-12readinglist.com earns from qualifying purchases.
Please do share or link to this page via social media, but refrain from copying or reproducing our adventure book synopses. Please respect intellectual property and copyright. Thank you.
Adventure books for teens – resources for teachers
- National Archives – DocsTeach: Berlin Wall & Cold War primary sources Classroom-ready documents and activities for Cold War checkpoints, escape attempts, propaganda, and reunification – useful context for A Night Divided and other Cold War survival narratives.
- The National WWII Museum – Classroom Resources Free, primary-source lesson plans, image sets, and multimedia on the European and Pacific theaters; pairs with Code Name Verity, Salt to the Sea, and Between Shades of Gray.
- NASA/JPL Education – K–12 STEM Resources Missions, design challenges, and data interactives in space science and engineering; connects to sci-fi adventure and survival in Starsight, Golden Son, and Star Splitter.
- Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum – Learning Resources Ready-to-implement activities and materials on flight, navigation, and aerospace history – strong support for aviation-driven plots like Code Name Verity.
- NOAA Ocean Exploration – Lesson Plans Inquiry lessons from real expeditions (mapping, ROVs, hazards, tsunamis) to extend ocean and disaster-at-sea arcs in The Living and seafaring titles such as Compass and Blade.
- USGS – Natural Hazards Education Volcano, earthquake, and landslide modules with data, maps, and preparedness framing – useful for wilderness and disaster survival scenarios in Peak, Gone, and The Hunger Games.
- National Park Service – “Surviving in the Wild” A classroom lesson on needs, habitats, and wildlife safety (adaptable upward with field research tasks) to ground survival fiction such as The River, I Am Still Alive, and Call of the Wild.
- NOAA – Classroom-ready Data Resources Curated, teacher-friendly datasets (weather, climate, oceans) for authentic analysis projects aligned to adventure plots involving storms at sea, drought, or extreme environments.
BISAC YAF001000 Teen adventure stories | Thema YFC
