Advanced Pre-Teen Reads #4: Adventure

APTR4: Adventures Abound

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts by Emma focussed on Advanced Pre-Teen Readers (APTRs). Find the first one here.

Adventure books are an excellent option for advanced young readers. They are exciting, often come in series, and any romance (if it’s there at all) is usually very much sub-plot rather than the focus. Some series follow pre-teens into the teen years, requiring increased reading and maturity levels, while others stay at about the same level all the way through.

When I was younger, I couldn’t get enough of Willard Price’s Adventure series (Junior fiction PRI), which included titles like Amazon Adventure, Safari Adventure and Volcano Adventure. In them, Hal (18) and Roger (13) travelled the world collecting animals for their father’s zoo. It was the perfect mixture of cute, fierce and exotic animals combined with travelling to fascinating, far-flung places. I also had a huge crush on 18 year old Hal (the more age-appropriate Roger was too “immature” for eleven year old me). In 2012, a spin-off series began, featuring Hal’s son and Roger’s daughter. Instead of collecting animals, they save them. The new books promote conservation more explicitly than the Price series did. The four titles, Leopard Adventure, Shark Adventure, Bear Adventure, and Python Adventure have been re-ordered for the library (our copies got worn out), but similar tales of survival and conservation can be found in Bear Grylls’ Mission Survival books (more suitable for this age group than the shorter Bear Grylls Adventure series) and other adventure series.

 New adventure series are constantly cropping up. Here’s a selection of librarian picks to look into. The links will take you to the first book in the series.

• Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve (YA fiction REE)
• Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan (Junior fiction RIO)
• Aru Shah series by Roshani Chokshi (Junior fiction CHO)
• Storm Runner series by J. C. Cervantes (Junior fiction CER)
• Tristan Strong series by Kwame Mbalia (Junior fiction MBA)
• His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman (YA fiction PUL)
• Mapmaker Chronicles series by A.L. Tait (Junior fiction TAI)
• CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore (YA MUC)
• Hatchet (Brian’s saga series) by Gary Paulsen (Junior fiction PAU)
• Survival (ALPHA Force series) by Chris Ryan (YA RYA)
• Young Samurai series by Chris Bradford (Junior fiction BRA)
• Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan (Junior fiction FLA)

Come back for more

This series of blogs covers a selection of books from the children’s, YA, and even adult collections that are suitable for advanced young readers.

Look out for other APTR blog posts on:

• Classics
• War stories and historical fiction
• Biographies and other non-fiction
• Junior fiction for all
• Library Li on Fantasy
• Library Li on New Zealand Fiction

If your APTR has read something great, let us know so that we can let other parents know! Email us or leave a note with staff at any of our libraries, letting them know to pass it on to Li and Emma. 

3 November 2021

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