Adventure books for a fourteen-year-old

[Ed Cunard]

Every year, my mother-in-law organizes a "Treasures For Children" thing for the hospital she and my wife work at--it's a gift-giving thing through (I believe) the local Salvation Army for kids that don't have a lot for the holidays. My wife and I usually grab a couple of names out of her list, and this year one of the girls we picked listed "books/adventure." I'm assuming that means she likes adventure books in general.

Unfortunately, I'm fairly clueless when it comes to picking out age-appropriate material, and I'm not very up on the whole adventure thing. If anyone has any suggestions in that regard, I'd appreciate it. My wife suggested those "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" books, but I'm thinking that isn't "adventure"--I could be wrong.

What are some books that a fourteen-year-old might like to read? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Greg Hatcher]

The Danny Dunn (http://www.bookloversden.com/series/boys_children/Dunn.html) series is great fun. No idea if they're still in print or not, but they ought to be. For a girl it would probably be better to get one of the ones AFTER "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine," because those include Irene as a regular character.

The Chronicles of Prydain (http://www.enkwiri.com/prydain/welcome.asp) are magnificent fantasy books that I would recommend to anyone, really. It's blasphemy around here to admit it but I prefer them to Tolkien.

Forget the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The REAL badass teen detectives for me were always Robert Arthur's The Three Investigators. (http://www.threeinvestigators.net/QM.html) Buy 'em used and get her one of the REAL ones, the ones with a cameo from Alfred Hitchcock.

The classics are never wrong. You could do a lot worse than Edgar Rice Burroughs, particularly The Son of Tarzan, or maybe At The Earth's Core. Or Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel, or one of the old Doc Savage books.

Aimed at a slightly older demographic but still perfectly accessible for a bright kid are Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake, Poul Anderson's Time Patrol books, or Neil Gaiman's Stardust.

That should get you through gift season, anyway.

[cactusmaac]

King Solomon's Mines.

Captain Blood.

[Hombre]

Unfortunately, I'm fairly clueless when it comes to picking out age-appropriate material, and I'm not very up on the whole adventure thing. If anyone has any suggestions in that regard, I'd appreciate it. My wife suggested those "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" books, but I'm thinking that isn't "adventure"--I could be wrong.

What are some books that a fourteen-year-old might like to read? Any advice would be appreciated.

The very first books I read were the quintessential adventure books written by Jules Verne, I don't know, a 14 year old may be too sophisticated for that. There's children's literature that's really moving, the Paul Street Boys by Hungarian author Ferenc Molnar, for example.

[DrewTheXenocide]

The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques is a good direction to go, especially the faster paced books like Mattimeo, Marlfox and Mossflower.

[Nate C.]

The Chronicles of Narnia.

[Ed Cunard]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I think we'll maybe buy a book or two from this list, and a gift card as a just-in-case (that is, if there's a bookstore close by--I'm not familiar with the area where my wife works).

[Davideaux]

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams
"Dragon's Blood" and its sequels by Jane Yolen.
"My Pet Goat" (Bush liked it).

[Slam_Bradley]

Speaking of Jane Yolen, her "Young Heroes" books might fit the bill. Good adventure and very strong female characters, though they may skew a bit young for a 14 year old. Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons and Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast feature female protagonists.

[K'Nort]

I was a big fan of the Pyrdain books.

Two years ago, I bought my niece (12, then) Inkheart by Cornelia Funke after it got a TON of good press and awards and such. She said it was one of the best books ever and she was loaning it to all her friends and they all loved it too. And she mostly reads Pyrdain/Narnia/etc stuff.

Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. Meggie, 12, has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. Things change after a visit from a scarred man who calls himself Dustfinger and who refers to Mo as Silvertongue. Meggie learns that her father has been keeping secrets. He can "read" characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released Dustfinger and other characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story. Mo also released Capricorn, a sadistic villain who takes great pleasure in murdering people. He has sent his black-coated henchmen to track down Mo and intends to force him to read an immortal monster out of the story to get rid of his enemies.

[Karl J. Barnes]

Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy is fairly adventuresome and is full of delightful characters and a neat twist on magic and the like.

[Shem the Penman]

Tamora Pierce. Plenty of girl-friendly fantasy adventure there.

I'd also suggest William Pene du Bois's The Twenty-One Balloons, anything by John Bellairs, and Diane Duane's "Wizard" series.

[Joe Rice]

The eldest girl in the Series of Unfortunate Events books is 14 and I think they're pretty damn great.

[berk]

The Three Musketeers. Maybe the best adventure novel ever written. I was about 14 when I read it the first time and it immediately became one my favourites.