In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months...

Inspired by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for several years on a Pacific island, the novel tells the story of Crusoe's survival after shipwreck on an island, interaction with the mainland's native inhabitants, and eventual rescue. Read variously as economic fable, religious allegory, or imperialist fantasy, Crusoe has never lost its appeal as one of the most compelling adventure stories of all time.

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat,...

"Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop...

'The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice"At the end of the Nineteenth Century, a sailor is shipwrecked on an island inhabited by scientist Doctor Moreau.Exiled by London's scientific community for his cruel and unnatrual experiments on animals, Moreau continues his work on the island.Very soon it becomes clear that Moreau's experiments are not restricted to mere animals....A new Large Print...

Nando Parrado regained consciousness to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as family members and supporters, had crashed deep in the Andes. Many were dead or dying, among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a glacier at nearly 12,000 feet, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search...

Eric and his friends dream of having an adventure at sea. When Eric gets a chance to crew for Victor and Mary Como, he jumps at it. But the Comos' fortunes change, and Eric finds himself in charge, at sea and not sure who he can trust.

Lost in the Great Smoky Mountains, rising high school senior Ashley Hawkins must fight for survival without any tools, growing in awareness that the world is not tame, and neither are people. "When Ashley goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. Catching her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends Ashley running into the night, stopped only by a nasty...

Shipwrecked after a vicious storm, fourteen-year-old John Spencer attempts to save his father and himself while also dealing with an evil secret about the English coastal town where they are stranded.

While trying to care for a group of abandoned young children, five Australian teenagers continue their struggle for survival and their resistance against the enemy invading their homeland.