Please enable JavaScript
All Books | Page 85 | LitPick Book Reviews
All Books
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Synopsis: Referring to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, H. L. Mencken noted that his discovery of this classic American novel was "the most stupendous event of my whole life"; Ernest Hemingway declared that "all modern American literature stems from this one book," while T. S. Eliot called Huck "one of the permanent symbolic figures of fiction, not unworthy to take a place with Ulysses, Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet."
The novel's preeminence derives from its wonderfully imaginative re-creation of boyhood adventures along the Mississippi River, its inspired characterization, the author's remarkable ear for dialogue, and the book's understated development of serious underlying themes: "natural" man versus "civilized" society, the evils of slavery, the innate value and dignity of human beings, and other topics. Most of all, Huckleberry Finn is a wonderful story, filled with high adventure and unforgettable characters.
Publication Date: 05/26/94
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
Synopsis: One of the most enduringly popular adventure tales, Treasure Island began in 1881 as a serialized adventure entitled "The Sea-Cook" in the periodical Young Folks. Completed during a stay at Davos, Switzerland, where Stevenson had gone for his health, it was published in 1883 in the form we know today.
Set in the eighteenth century, Treasure Island spins a heady tale of piracy, a mysterious treasure map, and a host of sinister characters charged with diabolical intentions. Seen through the eyes of Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy of the Hispaniola, the action-packed adventure tells of a perilous sea journey across the Spanish Main, a mutiny led by the infamous Long John Silver, and a lethal scramble for buried treasure on an exotic isle.
Rich in atmosphere and character, Treasure Island continues to mesmerize readers with its perceptive views of the changing nature of human motives.
Publication Date: 04/19/93
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Of Human Bondage
Jane Smiley, W. Somerset Maugham
Synopsis: The first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a tortured and masochistic affair.
Publication Date: 06/01/91
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
Synopsis: Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger's New Yorker stories, particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme--With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children.

The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.

There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices--but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.
Publication Date: 05/01/91
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
Synopsis:

Jack London's novels and ruggedly individual life seemed to embody American hopes, frustrations, and romantic longings in the turbulent first years of the twentieth century, years infused with the wonder and excitement of great technological and historic change. The author's restless spirit, taste for a life of excitement, and probing mind led him on a series of hard-edged adventures from the Klondike to the South Seas. Out of these sometimes harrowing experiences — and his fascination with the theories of such thinkers as Darwin, Spencer, and Marx — came the inspiration for novels of adventure that would make him one of America’s most popular writers.
The Call of the Wild, considered by many London's greatest novel, is a gripping tale of a heroic dog that, thrust into the brutal life of the Alaska Gold Rush, ultimately faces a choice between living in man's world and returning to nature. Adventure and dog-story enthusiasts as well as students and devotees of American literature will find this classic work a thrilling, memorable reading experience.

Publication Date: 07/01/90
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Synopsis: In 1862 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a shy Oxford mathematician with a stammer, created a story about a little girl tumbling down a rabbit hole. Thus began the immortal adventures of Alice, perhaps the most popular heroine in English literature.

Countless scholars have tried to define the charm of the Alice books—with those wonderfully eccentric characters the Queen of Hearts, Tweedledum, and Tweedledee, the Cheshire Cat, Mock Turtle, the Mad Hatter et al.—by proclaiming that they really comprise a satire on language, a political allegory, a parody of Victorian children’s literature, even a reflection of contemporary ecclesiastical history.

Perhaps, as Dodgson might have said, Alice is no more than a dream, a fairy tale about the trials and tribulations of growing up—or down, or all turned round—as seen through the expert eyes of a child.
Publication Date: 06/01/84
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Ratha's Creature
Clare Bell
Synopsis: Twenty-five million years ago, Ratha and her kind, the Named--a band of intelligent cats--are being pushed toward extinction by the UnNamed, until Ratha discovers, and masters, the terrifying power of fire
Publication Date: 02/01/83
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Kidnapped
Robert Louis Stevenson
Synopsis: Acclaimed by Henry James as Robert Louis Stevenson's best novel, Kidnapped achieves what Stevenson called, "the particular crown and triumph of the artist...not simply to convince, but to enchant."

Spirited, romantic, and full of danger, Kidnapped is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic of high adventure. Beloved by generations, it is the saga of David Balfour, a young heir whose greedy uncle connives to do him out of his inherited fortune and plots to have him seized and sold into slavery. But honor, loyalty, and courage are rewarded; the orphan and castaway survives kidnapping and shipwreck, is rescued by a daredevil of a rogue, and makes a thrilling escape to freedom across the wild highlands of Scotland.
Publication Date: 01/01/82
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
Synopsis: THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.
Publication Date: 04/28/81
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Ranger's Apprentice
Synopsis: Matching paperback set of the first eight titles of the Ranger's Apprentice Series. Newly designed updated cover art.
Publication Date: 01/16/00
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
Gorilla Dawn
Gill Lewis
Synopsis: Gorilla Dawn
Publication Date: 04/28/25
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
A Measure of Disorder, Book One Mother-Earth Book
Synopsis: Jenni Kershaw's ordinary life is about to become something out of this world.

Her eighth grade science class heads out into the wilderness on a field trip, eager for the coming summer and freshman year of high school beyond. Their lives, however, are about to be irrevocably changed in ways they could never imagine...

Jenni and her classmates become pitted against nefarious forces-- and even each other-- in their quests to find a way home and discover just who-- and what-- they really are.

Goblins and fairies and dragons-- oh my!
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone
Synopsis:
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Anchihiiroo-Origin of an Antihero (Toonopolis #1)
Synopsis: Author Note: Tales from Toonopolis is a non-linear series of "side stories" or other genre-specific adventures taking place in a single section of the infinite cartoon city. This story takes place in Animetown, the section of Toonopolis inspired by anime & manga and operates with the tropes of those forms of media. It would best be classified as a young adult coming of age adventure... with my Toonopolis flair!---- In Toonopolis: Gemini, Anchihiiroo (aka Han'Eiyuu) is the former hero of Animetown who turns Rogue after meeting the devious Shadowy Figure, forcing his creator to change him into a villain instead of the anti-hero he once was. Learn the full origin of Anchihiiroo, from his tragic childhood as Yoshi of Higeki to the warrior training that allowed him to put a stop to the Ninja-Pirate War that plagued Animetown. Witness his relationship with the phoenix Suzaku and his inevitable Rogue turn after meeting the mysterious Shadowy Figure. It is a story about destiny and a young man's desire to make his own path in the world.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
Toonopolis: Gemini (Toonopolis Files, #1)
Cami Woodruff, Jeremy Rodden
Synopsis: Toonopolis is a cartoon city that is home to the thoughts and ideas of all sentient beings in the universe. As the center of the Tooniverse, it acts as an other-worldly rest stop for these creations.

Gemini is a teenage human boy who is thrust into Toonopolis through his father's scientific research program. He loses part of himself in the process and immediately begins a quest to regain his lost memories with the help of his Tooniverse guide named Jimbob the Talking Eggplant.

After an altercation with a mysterious Shadowy Figure, Gemini's mission is changed, an he begins a new quest to defeat Shadowy Figure and protect Toonopolis from his nefarious destruction. Along the way, he meets new friends, discovers just how diverse and strange Toonopolis is, and learns lessons about compassion, forgiveness, redemption, and being true to oneself.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
Zaftan Entrepreneurs: Book 1 of the Zaftan Trilogy
Synopsis: Tired of reading scifi and fantasy stories that take themselves too seriously? Zaftan Entrepreneurs is a unique
First Contact story; it is part adventure and part corporate and political satire spiced with comic relief.
Here, you'll find nasty, snarly aliens, fantasy creatures, humans, romance, magic, and--just like the
real world--incompetent politicians and feuding bureaucracies. What more could a fantasy/scifi reader ask for?
Aliens, fantasy creatures and humans in one story? They don't mix very well. Neither do untrustworthy aliens and
deceitful government bureaucrats.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS