Best Adventure Series for ages 11 and 12

There's no adventure quite as good as a bookish one, is there?

Books packed with quests, great undertakings and breathtaking action make life exciting, especially for 11 and 12 year olds, who have young, growing minds with vivid imaginations. Another thing that keeps readers hooked? A cast of familiar characters and worlds we love escaping to time and time again. So, with this in mind, we've put together our favourite book series brimming with exciting adventure for readers between the ages of 11 and 12. From historical fiction to fantasy, we cover so many different genres – there is bound to be the perfect series for every type of reader. If you're looking for more recommendations for this age-group, check out our 50 Best Book Series for 11 and 12 year olds.

Georgina Atwell

Toppsta

2025-04-08

2024-03-01

Best Adventure Series for ages 11 and 12

Scarlett and Browne Series

From best-selling Lockwood & Co. author Jonathan Stroud, comes a new swashbuckling adventure series of audacious CRIMES and DARING exploits!

Meet Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne. Together, they face a stripped-down England, where catastrophes have taken down cities, to the point where even London is nothing but a lagoon. Fortified towns have replaced the cities, and unknown beasts are free in the wilderness. In order to survive in the apocalyptic-like world, one must obey strict rules. Those who don't...are eliminated. Scarlett and Albert are outlaws, and to live the lives they want for themselves, they will have to defy all rules, outwit their pursuers and defy death as they carry out heists across the Seven Kingdoms. The final book in the series, The Legendary Scarlett & Browne, was released on 16th January 2025.

View Scarlett and Browne Series

Alex Rider Series

14-year-old Alex Rider is a normal teenager ... until he is thrust into working for MI6 in the wake of his uncle’s suspicious death. Before he knows it, he is operating in a murky world of secret gadgets, weapons, terrorists and most of all danger. We love the Alex Rider books for their fast-paced action and nail-biting mysteries and Toppsta readers do too. Check out their five-star reviews for these exciting adventure stories, recommended for readers aged 9+.

View Alex Rider Series

Cherub Series

The Cherub series is a group of spy novels about a top-secret branch of the British Security Service called CHERUB, which employs bright children, predominantly orphans, under the age of 17, as intelligence agents.

Our story begins when main character James is recruited by Cherub on his first mission, during which he must unravel the mystery surrounding a group of hippy environmentalists at Fort Harmony. It contains unexpected twists a-plenty, so be prepared for a breathtaking start to an excellent series. Packed with action, this highly thrilling masterpiece of a teen novel is hard to put down, the same goes for the rest of the series with each sequel seemingly better than the last.

View Cherub Series

Circus Maximus Series

Dido is twelve years old and has one dream and one dream only: to be the first female charioteer at the great Circus Maximus. But such ambitions are forbidden to girls and she must be content with helping her father Antonius – the trainer of Rome's most popular racing team, The Greens.

Then her father is brutally murdered. She runs away, but the threat to her life isn't over as she faces a powerful and terrifying new enemy... the emperor Caligula. Dido's determination, wit and adventurous spirit will take her along the path less travelled, and she will overcome all kinds of challenges, from outwitting the emperor and his bounty hunters, to facing dangerous races that put her life at risk.

View Circus Maximus Series

The Gone Series Series

The Gone series by Michael Grant is thrilling dystopian fiction for young adults. Described by the publisher as “Lord of the Flies for the 21st Century”, these terrifying and gripping books are set in a dystopian reality where everyone aged 15 or older suddenly disappears. There’s no help for those who remain, gangs form and then some start to develop powers… welcome to the FAYZ.

Fans are desperate for a Gone TV series or movie but as yet nothing has been confirmed, however you can continue the adventures with The Monster Series by Michael Grant, set four years after the events of Gone.

View The Gone Series Series

Mortal Engines Series

Mortal Engines is an award-winning YA science fiction series, set in the post-apocalyptic world of the Traction Era where motorised cities fight each other for survival.

The quartet follows the adventures of young apprentice Tom Natsworthy and the dangerous Hester Shaw, as they flee London for the wastelands fighting off cyborgs, plagues, ghosts and more. The original Mortal Engines book series was followed by a series of three prequels, set hundreds of years before the events of Mortal Engines. There is no set order to read the books in, but we recommend reading the books in the order they were written.

View Mortal Engines Series

The Medusa Project Series

The Medusa Project is a six-part thriller series by award-winning Girl, Missing author Sophie McKenzie. The Medusa Project is a gripping spy thriller series following four teenagers who discover they have psychic abilities. The teens are brought together by a government agent who puts them on The Medusa Project - a special crime fighting unit that works undercover on dangerous missions. They just have to get to grips with their abilities first...

View The Medusa Project Series

Lockwood & Co. Series

Lockwood and Co is an exciting supernatural thriller series for readers 9+ written by Jonathan Stroud. Now a major Netflix series, the Lockwood and Co books follow psychic investigator Lucy Carlyle’s adventures investigating the spookiest and deadliest hauntings in London. Britain has been haunted by an epidemic of ghosts, who only children have the power to fight. Lucy Carlyle joins London’s smallest ghost-hunter agency, run by Anthony Lockwood and his assistant George Cubbins and, together with their tools of the trade and a thermos of tea, they take on the most terrifying ghosts and ghouls.

View Lockwood & Co. Series

The Hunger Games Series

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the ultimate Young Adult dystopian series. The books have been a worldwide phenomenon, selling millions of copies even before the 2012 blockbuster Hunger Games film adaptation, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. The books are set in Panem - an alternate world in the near future, where a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed.

Hunger Games Books in Order

More series to Explore

Front Lines by Michael Grant (Farshore)

Blade by Tim Bowler (Oxford University Press)

Robert Muchamore’s Robin Hood by Robert Muchamore (Hot Key Books)

Henderson’s Boys Series by Robert Muchamore (Hachette Children's Books)

S.T.E.A.L.T.H. by Jason Rohan (Nosy Crow)

WARP by Eoin Colfer (Puffin)

Georgina Atwell

Toppsta

2025-04-08

2024-03-01