Kids and Families

Journeys

Fiction | Fiction for Older Readers

Fiction

The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford ; illustrated by Carl Burger.
A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian wilderness to find their family.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary ; illustrated by Louis Darling.
A reckless young mouse named Ralph makes friends with a boy in room 215 of the Mountain View Inn and discovers the joys of motorcycling.

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

The Window, by Michael Dorris.
When ten-year-old Rayona's Native American mother enters a treatment facility, her estranged father, a Black man, finally introduces her to his side of the family, who are not at all what she expected.

Jim Ugly, by Sid Fleischman ; illustrations by Jos. A. Smith.
The adventures of twelve-year-old Jake and Jim Ugly, his father's part-mongrel, part-wolf dog, as they travel through the Old West trying to find out what really happened to Jake's actor father.

The Midnight Horse, by Sid Fleischman ; illustratedby Peter Sís.
Touch enlists the help of The Great Chaffalo, a ghostly magician, to thwart his great-uncle's plans to put Touch into the orphan house and swindle The Red Raven Inn away from Miss Sally.

Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

King of the Wind, by Marguerite Henry
Agba, a stable boy, follows his beloved horse, Sham, through many trials and triumphs until he fulfills his destiny to become the fastest horse ever, the King of the Wind.

The Big Wander, by Will Hobbs.
As he searches for his uncle through the rugged Southwest canyon country, fourteen-year-old Clay becomes involved with a group of Navajo Indians who are trying to save some of the last wild mustangs.

True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad, by Kathryn Lasky.
Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.

Amelia Hits the Road, by Marissa Moss.
Ten-year-old Amelia keeps a journal of the summer car trip she takes with her mother and sister to Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and their California home town to visit Amelia's best friend.

The Fear Place, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.
When he and his older brother Gordon are left camping alone in the Rocky Mountains, twelve-year-old Doug faces his fear of heights and his feelings about Gordon--with the help of a cougar.

Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

Mr. Tucket, by Gary Paulsen.
In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild.

Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing, by Alf Proysen. Retold by Marianne Helweg. Illustrated by Bjorn Berg.
Each time Mrs. Pepperpot shrinks she encounters an animal tha becomes a pet when she returns to normal size.

Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt
Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity.

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade, by Diane L. Wilson
In early fourteenth century China, Oyuna tells her granddaughter of her girlhood in Mongolia and how love for her horse enabled her to win an important race and bring good luck to her family.

Fiction for Older Readers

Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer.
Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from Chicago to Texas to confront the son who is trying to force her to retire, and on the way Jenna hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place, by Alden Carter.
Although neither fifteen-year-old Mark, nor his diabetic cousin, Randy are looking forward to the canoe trip that is a family rite of passage, they begin to enjoy themselves as they make their way through Minnesota's lake country, until the trip becomes a fight for survival.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Don't Look Begind You, by Lois Duncan.
April finds her life changed forever when death threats to her father force her family to go into hiding under assumed names and flee the pursuit of a hired killer.

A Girl Named Disaster, by Nancy Farmer.
While journeying to Zimbabwe, eleven-year-old Nhamo struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer.
In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.

Cart and Cwidder, by Diana Wynne Jones.
When their father, a traveling minstrel, is killed, three children involved in rebellion and intrigue inherit a lute-like cwidder with more than musical powers.

Kiss the Dust, by Elizabeth Laird.
Her father's involvement with the Kurdish resistance movement in Iraq forces thirteen-year-old Tara to flee with her family over the border into Iran, where they face an unknown future.

Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine.
Given the gift of obedience at birth by one of her fairy godmothers, Ella goes on a quest to find her fairy godmother and break the spell.

Climb or Die, by Edward Myers.
After a car accident in a snowy Colorado pass seriously injures their parents, athletic fourteen-year-old Danielle and her brainy younger brother Jake must scale a mountain to find help.

The Righteous Revenge of Artemis T. Bonner, by Walter Dean Myers.
Fifteen-year-old Artemis journeys from New York City to Tombstone, Arizona, in 1882 to avenge the murder of his uncle.

Somewhere in the Darkness, by Walter Dean Myers.
A teenage boy accompanies his father, who has recently escaped from prison, on a trip that turns out to be an, often painful, time of discovery for them both.

The Voyage of the Frog, by Gary Paulsen.
When David goes out on his sailboat to scatter his recently deceased uncle's ashes to the wind, he is caught in a fierce storm and must survive many days on his own as he works out his feelings about life and his uncle.

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman.
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

So Far from the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Kawashima Watkins.
A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II.

Dragon's Gate, by Laurence Yep.
When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867. Sequel to "Mountain light."

The Beetle and Me: a Love Story, by Karen Romano Young.
Fifteen-year-old Daisy pursues her goal of single-handedly restoring the car of her dreams, the old purple Volkswagen Beetle from her childhood.

 

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