Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Outdoor reading suggestions for High Schoolers ?

I am now working as Asst High School Librarian / Media Specialist. Our librarian has purchased a few Outdoor related books. However, when I have directed some of our boys to them, they come back in a few days. Mostly unread. When I ask how they like the books, the couple responses have mostly been tepid. Not enough suspense / drama, etc.

What books would the 'Fire recommend for outdoor reading that would engage, captivate High School age students, particularly boys, to keep them reading?

I know that I read and enjoyed the Capstick "Death" series a couple times through before I passed my copies along to a young man in our church. I did manage to get one young man read through a book on Shackleton's journey on the Endurance. Any other suggestions of books to engage younger readers on outdoor topics. Fiction or preferably non-fiction?

As a former teen reader, I read a lot of Science Fiction/Fantasy. Swiss Family Robinson could be a good fit. It's an older classic.

David Eddings "Pawn of Prophesy" was a favorite.
Isaac Asimov "I Robot" was good. It was made into a movie that didn't follow the book at all. Maybe have them compare the two.
Lawrence Watt-Evans "Misenchanted Sword" is a fun read.
JRR Tolkein has stood the test of time with boys of all ages.
Tom Clancy's early stuff is excellent.
Clive Cussler's work is known to be adventure and lost treasure based.
Andy Weir "The Martian" is both a good book and movie.

If your school hasn't banned it, Ayn Rand has "Fountainhead".
John Wesley Rawles "Patriots" will get you fired from your job.

Books by Col. Jim Corbett. Maneaters of Kumaon is a good start, but he wrote a good bit on less grim topics as well. An amazing character, and a genuine hero to the people of that region of India.

I recently started getting Sports Afield magazine, and it’s just excellent. No chest-thumping or back-slapping Bubba antics, just great stories and pics, with a lot of content on conservation and history and classic stories from the past too. Nothing I‘ve seen recently puts what we do in a better light.

Cj box Joe Pickett series.

Outdoors.
Suspense.
Well written.

Part of the problem is, as you stated, there just isn't enough suspense and drama. Most kids have grown up watching media that has everything turned up to Eleven. That stuff also keeps them out of the field, where they'd be learning that a 4-hour wait for a gobbler to show can be riveting or how a snapping twig on the Deer Opener can be electric.

My sons have friends. They're all 20-somethings, and they like to camp and shoot at our place in KY. Most can stomach a 2-day campout, but in several years of trying, they finally convinced one friend to come hunting with them. None, repeat none, of these kids had any exposure to the outdoors as kids. Some have expressed an interest, but are completely ill-informed and ill-prepared. They just don't get it.



BTW: I tried this kind of fiction about 5 years ago. My humble recommendation:

The Glenfield

STALIN....to let them know what they'll be facing...now and later!!

lew and charlie

Hemingway's short stories are (and were) my favorite as a young man. Mirrored my own trips in the woods. Hiking, camping, fishing, skiing.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-complete-short-stories-of-ernest-hemingway_ernest-hemingway/252073/item/10214500/?mkwid=nNQcndKL%7cdm&pcrid=11558858482&pkw=&pmt=be&slid=&product=10214500&plc=&pgrid=3970769556&ptaid=pla-1101002859750&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Bing+Shopping+%7c+Literature+&+Fiction&utm_term=&utm_content=nNQcndKL%7cdm%7cpcrid%7c11558858482%7cpkw%7c%7cpmt%7cbe%7cproduct%7c10214500%7cslid%7c%7cpgrid%7c3970769556%7cptaid%7cpla-1101002859750%7c&msclkid=d85cb7d5f1d4146566acd75f6c19b1c0#idiq=10214500&edition=2501761

In to Thin Air - about the fatal Everest episode.

and

Into the Wild - about Christopher McCandless who starved to death in Alaska.

both by Jon Krakauer.

I hate that entire story.

I'm truly happy I never read anything like it as a youth.
It easily could have changed my desires to explore wild areas.

McCandless was nothing but a suicidal, know nothing problemed punk.

Ruarks The Old Man and the Boy is a classic. Right there with Tom Sawyer and Huck IMO. Not sure if today’s youth have the temperament to read anything good.

+1

So that’s a “no” then.

LOL

I enjoyed all of Capstick’s stuff as a kid.

Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa too.

Unfortunately, you face a real battle. Kids don't read much anymore from what I see. Just like what TV probably did 60 years ago to reading, social media is doing now. Oh sure, kids read, they just don't read books. Same goes for adults though too. Phones, Youtube, and the internet have replaced turning pages in a book.

I agree.

That’s the last book I’d recommend to a kid. Dumbest story ever told.

I don’t think you’re such a dim-witted snowflake that McCandles’s story woulda deterred you from anything. Might have told you what not to do tho.