"In this spirited novel by master storyteller Jules Verne, five Civil War prisoners escape their Confederate jail by hijacking a hot-air balloon. Blown halfway across the world and stranded on a remote island, the fugitives' survival depends upon their ability to build a sustainable environment while withstanding pirate attacks, volcanic eruptions, and other challenges. Engineer Cyrus Harding takes charge of the crew, consisting of his servant, Neb;...

On his way to hunt jaguars in the Brazilian jungle, a professional hunter is marooned on a remote island inhabited by a fellow hunter who pursues unusual game. Includes an analysis of the story and a biography of the author.

In 1945, when the Americans liberate the Bikini Atoll from the Japanese, fourteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu does not realize that the next year he will lead a desperate effort to save his island home from a much more deadly threat.

Soon after Peter, an orphan, sets sail from England on the ship Never Land, he befriends and assists 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.

In an ancient time of icy splendor at the top of the world, can two people whose spirits belong to each other overcome the senseless violence between their tribes? A wise storyteller and powerful hunter, Chakliux has one weakness: the beautiful Aqamdax, who has been promised to a cruel tribesman she does not love. But there can be no future for Chakliux and Aqamdax until a curse upon their peoples has been lifted. As they travel a dangerous path,...

The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson) is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Port Jackson, Australia.Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss and illustrated by his son Johann Emmanuel Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world...

In this "witty novel about family, friendship, and survival of the fittest,"* Cathleen Schine, one of our most astute social observers, examines the origin of species alongside the origins of who we come to be. In some mysterious family feud or unintended slight, Jane Barlow Schwartz lost a friend, her cousin and soul mate, Martha. But years later, surrounded by the exotic wildlife of the Galapagos, Jane and Martha meet again. There, amid the antics...

"Starving herself to fend off adulthood in a radical post-apocalypse community where a few chosen men scavenge for detritus and women are little more than breeders, a teen leader investigates a shocking mystery that is contradictory to law before risking her life to organize a girl uprising"--

While visiting a friend of their grandfather's on Sullivan's Island, off the coast of South Carolina near Charleston, the Boxcar Children encounter mysterious activities related to rumors of a buried pirate treasure.

Madeleine returns to her island home after ten years in Paris, haunted by the memories she has of the island and its inhabitants, but instead of finding peace and comfort, she discovers both the island and her own father have become withdrawn and quiet.