Young Adult Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen reads
• Adventure books
• Clean reads
• Read like J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, Orson Scott Card, Lois Lowry, Madeleine L'Engle, Suzanne Collins

Hero and the Crown 
By Robin McKinley
YA FICTION MCKINLEY
Aerin never knew her mother, who passed away shortly after Aerin’s birth. The Kingdom needed a new hero, but there was no male heir. No one suspected that Aerin was destined to be the true hero who would earn her place in her father’s court by defeating dragons and battling evil sorcerers. Well-wrought epic fantasy.

Peter and the Starcatchers 

By Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
YA FICTION BARRY
This terrific story is a prequel to Peter Pan. The reader is introduced to Peter—an orphan—who sails from England on the ship Never Land. On board he meets Molly, a young Starcatcher, whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust from a greedy pirate and the native inhabitants of a remote island. A fast, fun read.

I Hated Heaven: A Novel of Love After Death 
By Kenny Kemp
FICTION KEMP
Tom and April are a young, married couple. Tom is a religious believer but April is not. Tom suffers an accident at work and on his deathbed he promises that he will somehow let April know if there is life after death. Heaven turns out to be nothing like he expected: he’s issued a cell phone, a day planner, and sent to classes such as “basic paradise skills”. Tom risks his soul to keep his promise to April. This is a delightful read with some unexpected twists and turns.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA FICTION CASHORE
Throughout the Seven Kingdoms are Gracelings—persons with special abilities ranging from the mundane to the magical. Katsa is a Graceling with a dangerous and exploitable grace—a gift for killing. Struggling to find her place in the world, Katsa learns that the Graces are not always what they seem. Part fantasy and part romance, Graceling features a vivid world and meticulously crafted characters.

Teen Boy Adventure Books

Try these books if you're looking for:

• adventure
• mystery
• reads like Rick Riordan and Margaret Peterson Haddix

Skulduggery Pleasant 
By Derek Landy
YA F LANDY Skuldugg #1
When twelve-year-old Stephanie inherits her weird uncle's estate, she must join forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton mage, to save the world from the Faceless Ones. 

Stormbreaker 
By Anthony Horowitz
YA F HOROWITZ Alex Rid #1
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.

Historical Fiction Mixed with Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Historical fiction
• Read-alikes for Rick Riordan
• Focus on plot, action and events

Nobody’s Princess
By Esther M. Friesner
YA F FRIESNER
Determined to fend for herself in a world where only men have real freedom, headstrong Helen, who will be called queen of Sparta and Helen of Troy one day, learns to fight, hunt, and ride horses while disguised as a boy, and goes on an adventure throughout the Mediterranean world.

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE Leviatha #1
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts. (This one is science fiction, not fantasy.)

The Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD Bartimae #1
Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns
By Rae Carson
YA F CARSON
A fearful sixteen-year-old princess discovers her heroic destiny after being married off to the king of a neighboring country in turmoil and pursued by enemies seething with dark magic.

Airman
By Eoin Colfer
YA F COLFER
In the late nineteenth century, when Conor Broekhart discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king, he is branded a traitor, imprisoned, and forced to mine for diamonds under brutal conditions while he plans a daring escape from Little Saltee prison by way of a flying machine that he must design, build, and, hardest of all, trust to carry him to safety.