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Survival Stories for Kids

From earthquakes to shipwrecks, this book list features edge-of-your-seat tales of youth surviving against the odds.

Library Staff
New Westminster Public Library

21 items

  • Lily and the Great Quake

    a San Francisco Earthquake Survival Story

    Bybee, Veeda,
    Lily is the oldest of the three children in her Chinese American family living in San Francisco when the 1906 earthquake hits; her family has survived the quake, but as the city starts to burn, Lily and her younger brother are separated…
    BookNorth Mankato, Minnesota : Stone Arch Books, a Capstone imprint, [2020] — JUV SERIES Gir
  • Francie and her parents are on a spring road trip driving from British Columbia, Canada, to hike in the Grand Canyon when disaster strikes. Their truck hits a rock and wipes out the oilpan. They are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Her dad…
    BookToronto, ON : Puffin Canada, 2020. — JUV FIC Gre
  • Twelve-year-old Sora and her eight-year-old brother, Youngsoo, must try to escape North Korea's oppressive Communist regime on their own in 1950. Includes historical notes, photographs of the author's mother, glossary of Korean words, and…
    BookNew York : Holiday House, [2020] — JUV FIC Lee
  • Chris and Frank's sailing vessel sinks and they are the only survivors in the wilds of Alaska. They must build a relationship to survive although they don't like each other at all.
    BookNew York : Delacorte Press, [2016] — JUV FIC Law
  • Thirteen-year-old Karma lives with her family at their raptor conservation center in Montana. When she has to take her beloved bird, Stark, the gyrfalcon she rescued, back to its owner, she's sorely disappointed. But things get worse when…
    BookWatertown, MA : Charlesbridge, [2017] — JUV FIC Joh
  • While using a public library computer to find help for her mother who is addicted to pain medicine, twelve-year-old Jolene witnesses a friend's livestreamed crash-landing in the Arizona desert and embarks on a journey to rescue her.
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2021. — JUV FIC Bow
  • Everyone in Jaime's small town in Guatemala knows someone who has been killed by the Alphas, a powerful gang that's known for violence and drug trafficking. Miguel, Jaime's cousin and best friend, was killed and Jaime fears that he is…
    BookNew York : Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2016] — JUV FIC Dia
  • Sloan Riley is a skilled hunter, but since her mother left, and she lost hearing in one ear, she has clung to her father and older sister, so waking up and discovering they have left her for a few days terrifies her--but when an autumn…
    BookNew York, NY : Scholastic Press, 2017. — JUV FIC Sco
  • When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely…
    BookNew York, NY : Aladdin, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division, 2021. — JUV FIC Fre
  • Roz the robot discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island with no memory of where she is from or why she is there, and her only hope of survival is to try to learn about her new environment from the island's hostile inhabitants.
    BookNew York ; Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 2016. — JUV FIC Bro
  • At 1:55 AM on the morning of May 29, 1914, two young friends, Grace and Albert stand on the deck of the Empress of Ireland, a ship sailing from Canada to Liverpool, England. But excitement soon turns to terror, as the friends feel a sharp…
    BookJUV SERIES Sur
  • A Storm Too Soon

    a Remarkable True Survival Story in 80-foot Seas

    Tougias, Mike, 1955-
    When a forty-seven-foot sailboat disappears in the Gulf Stream in the throes of a calamitous storm, it leaves behind three weary passengers struggling to stay alive afloat a life raft in violent waves 80 feet tall
    BookNew York, New York : Henry Holt and Company, LLC 2016. — JUV 910.453 TOU 2016
  • In July, 1916, Chet Roscow is fascinated by news accounts of the great white shark said to be attacking people along the New Jersey shore not far from his home, but when he goes swimming in Matawan Creek he discovers the truth of the…
    BookNew York : Scholastic, [2010] — EASY SERIES Isu
  • When Michael's parents lose their jobs, they buy a boat and decide to sail around the world with their son and their beloved dog. It's an ideal trip - until Michael is swept overboard. He's washed up on an island, where he struggles to…
    BookNew York, NY : Scholastic, 1999, 2003 — JUV FIC Mor
  • Thirteen-year-old Tatum's dream of competing in the grueling 1,049-mile Iditerod Trail Sled Dog Race may be at an end when she becomes lost in a freak snowstorm during a training run on Alaska's remote Santa Ysabel Island.
    BookNew York : Delacorte Press, 2012. — JUV FIC Sha
  • In this survival story set in Alaska, fourteen-year-old Vicky and her dog sled team find an injured sledder in the wilderness.
    BookBoston ; New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. — JUV FIC Joh
  • Flynn hates the outdoors. Always has. He barely pays attention in his Outdoor Ed class. He has no interest in doing a book report on Lost in the Barrens . He doesn't understand why anybody would want to go hiking or camping. But when he…
    BookVictoria, British Columbia : Orca Book Publishers, 2015. — JUV FIC Hug
  • Toby and his friend Lucas made a list of things to do the summer before they entered middle school, but now Lucas is gone, and Toby sets out to fulfill the promise he made to his friend, to finish the list by hiking the Appalachian Trail…
    BookNew York, NY : Scholastic Press, 2017. — JUV FIC Has
  • A year after the death of her mother in a restaurant shooting, Nora is left struggling to stay alive when a climbing trip with her father goes terribly wrong.
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. — JUV FIC Bow
  • Eleven-year-old Travis and twelve-year-old Stacey, separated from their families after being thrown into the Atlantic off the coast of Washington, battle hypothermia as they struggle to survive. Includes Coast Guard-approved cold-water…
    BookBoston ; — JUV SERIES Sur