Best adventure books for kids 9+

Have you ever wished to just escape reality and go on a life-changing, dangerous, action-packed adventure? Because we have too ... every day!

There are SO MANY brilliant adventure stories for ages 9+ out there at the moment, so it was especially hard to do a round-up of our favourites, but we've taken your reviews as our guide and selected some of the top-starred adventure books. Dragons, lions, unicorns and even aliens fill the pages of these books, making our everyday lives that much more unpredictable and exciting. You have been warned: once you read these books you will never go back to life as it was.

If you want extra insight to some of these titles, you can check out our blog posts about The Good Turn, Swarm Rising and Alienated. But don't discount some of the great classics like Harry Potter or the much-loved Artemis Fowl books.

And if none of these quite tickle your fancy, why not give Choose Your Own Adventure books? We've done a whole feature about them here! Or you can discover more books loved by kids 9+ here.

Ready to go on an adventure?

Georgina Atwell

Toppsta

2023-01-12

Best adventure books for kids 9+

The Valley of Lost Secrets

September 1939. When Jimmy is evacuated to a small village in Wales, it couldn't be more different from London. Green, quiet and full of strangers, he instantly feels out of place. But then he finds a skull hidden in a tree, and suddenly the valley is more frightening than the war. Who can Jimmy trust? His brother is too little; his best friend has changed. Finding an ally in someone he never expects, they set out together to uncover the secrets that lie with the skull. What they discover will change Jimmy - and the village - forever.

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The Explorer

From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer, of making history and of reading his name amongst the lists of great discoveries. If only he could land and look about him. As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He and the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small. Except, it seems, someone has been there before them ...

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Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow Book 1

Enter the Wundrous world of Morrigan Crow and Nevermoor - the most fantastical children's series of the year. Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks - and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor. It's then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city's most prestigious organisation: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart - an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests - or she'll have to leave the city and confront her deadly fate once and for all. Perfect for fans of the Harry Potter series and His Dark Materials, this series takes readers into an extraordinary world, setting hope and imagination alive.

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Amari and the Night Brothers

An epic middle grade supernatural adventure series, soon to be a major movie starring Marsai Martin. Perfect for readers aged 8+ and fans of Percy Jackson, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief and Men in Black.

Amari and the Night Brothers has been on the children's NYT bestseller list since its launch in January, 2021

Amari Peters knows three things.

Her big brother Quinton has gone missing.
No one will talk about it.
His mysterious job holds the secret ...

So when Amari gets an invitation to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she's certain this is her chance to find Quinton. But first she has to get her head around the new world of the Bureau, where mermaids, aliens and magicians are real, and her roommate is a weredragon.

Amari must compete against kids who've known about the supernatural world their whole lives, and when each trainee is awarded a special supernatural talent, Amari is given an illegal talent - one that the Bureau views as dangerous.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is the enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn't pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton ...

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Skandar and the Unicorn Thief: The major new hit fantasy series

Soar into a breathtaking world of heroes and unicorns as you've never seen them before, in this first book in the new bestselling fantasy adventure series for children age 9+, and fans of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Amari and the Night Brothers.

Thirteen-year-old Skandar Smith has only ever wanted to be a unicorn rider. To be one of the lucky few selected to hatch a unicorn. To bond with it for life; to train together and race for glory; to be a hero.

But just as Skandar's dream is about to come true, things start to take a more dangerous turn than he could ever have imagined. A dark and twisted enemy has stolen the Island's most powerful unicorn - and as the threat grows ever closer, Skandar discovers a secret that could blow apart his world forever . . .

Get ready for unlikely HEROES, elemental MAGIC, sky battles, ancient secrets, nail-biting races and FEROCIOUS UNICORNS, in this EPIC ADVENTURE series that will have your heart soaring.

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The Land of Roar

The first in a new children's fantasy adventure series, full of imagination, humour and heart, and with echoes of Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Neverending Story and Jumanji .

The Land of Roar is perfect for children aged 8 to 12, and can sit on their bookshelf next to Nevermoor , Wizards of Once and How to Train Your Dragon . Readers can bring their fantasy world to life and meet dragons, unicorns, mermaids and more in this beautifully illustrated children's book.

Believing is just the beginning ...

When Arthur and Rose were little, they were heroes in the Land of Roar, an imaginary world that they found by climbing through the folding bed in their grandad's attic. Roar was filled with things they loved - dragons, mermaids, ninja wizards and adventure - as well as things that scared them (including a very creepy scarecrow...)

Now the twins are eleven, Roar is just a memory. But when they help Grandad clean out the attic, Arthur is horrified as Grandad is pulled into the folding bed and vanishes. Is he playing a joke? Or is Roar ... real?

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Fireborn: Twelve and the Frozen Forest

Set in the snowy northern forests of an imagined prehistoric world, Fireborn is the middle-grade debut of the decade. At turns exciting, funny and heart wrenchingly sad, it marks the introduction of an unstoppable new voice in children's storytelling.

Twelve has spoken the Pledge and now she is a Huntling. She has given up her name to train in the art of fighting monsters and keeping the peace, and she won't get to choose a new one until she has earned it.

But when the Lodge's walls are breached for the first time, and a little girl is taken, Twelve is the only one interested in going after a child . . .

Teaming up with Dog, the Stone Guardian of the Lodge, Twelve ends up on an epic adventure that will change her life, her name - and her entire world.

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Alienated: Grounded at Groom Lake

Think your school is strange? Feel like you don't quite fit in? Fourteen-year-old Sherman Capote is an Air Force brat used to moving schools. But he's never been to a place like Groom Lake High, the high school for aliens at Area 51. It's a totally alien environment filled with cliques and bullies, but he makes friends with a gang of galactic misfits: Octo, a quick-witted Ventitent (a twenty-tentacled "octopus"), Houston, a moody robot, Sonya, a rebellious lizard, and Juliet, an omnipotent goddess. But when the school bully, Ned, initiates a War of the Worlds, Sherman and his new friends must set aside homework, first crushes and high school proms to save the world.

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Malamander

Nobody visits Eerie-on-Sea in the winter. Especially not when darkness falls and the wind howls around Maw Rocks and the wreck of the battleship Leviathan, where even now some swear they have seen the unctuous Malamander creep...

Herbert Lemon, Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, knows that returning lost things to their rightful owners is not easy - especially when the lost thing is not a thing at all, but a girl. No one knows what happened to Violet Parma's parents twelve years ago, and when she engages Herbie to help her find them, the pair discover that their disappearance might have something to do with the legendary sea-monster, the Malamander. Eerie-on-Sea has always been a mysteriously chilling place, where strange stories seem to wash up. And it just got stranger...

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The Good Turn

A thrilling, pacy adventure about friendship, bravery and real-life injustice from the award-winning author of High Rise Mystery

Josephine Williams is definitely a leader - and her teachers know it! What other eleven-year-old is desperate for MORE schoolwork?

Looking for more challenging tasks, Josie enlists her friends Wesley and Margot into her very own Scout troop, the Copseys, named after the street they all live on. Together they start their quest for their camping badge by sleeping out near to the abandoned factory behind their houses.

But that night they stumble across something strange. Someone seems to be living in the derelict building! The Copseys have to solve the mystery... and perhaps earn their bravery and activism badges along the way...

Perfect for readers who love Robin Stevens and Katherine Woodfine, and full of fast-paced adventure, brilliant characters and snappy dialogue with themes of real-life activism and how to help others.

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Swarm Rising: Book 1

For fans of Alex Rider, Young Bond and Cherub, this exciting action-adventure is the first children's book by astronaut Tim Peake and bestselling author Steve Cole, and it's based on space-age science and technology.

When Danny is kidnapped by Adi - who can run through brick walls and make cars drive on water - he realises that all humans are in danger. Adi is part of a super-advanced hive mind, the Swarm, which intends to protect the Earth from the environmental catastrophe caused by the human race.

Adi - Alien Digital Intelligence in the form of a girl - can bend the laws of physics and control digital data, but as a digital being she wants to know what it's like to be human. Which is where Danny comes in.

But what exactly is the 'help' the secretive Swarm is offering? Can Danny and his friend Jamila help Adi stop the Swarm Agents and give humanity a second chance?

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