Define Adventure

Luke Skywalker’s green, troll-like advisor (thank you, Trivial Pursuit Genus I) once said, “Adventure…excitement…a Jedi craves not these things.” And while I’d never be so much of a fool as to argue with Yoda, I do often get patrons seeking adventure in the form of books.

Whenever I have a patron looking for an “adventure book”, the first question I ask is, “Spies, pirates, or survival?” I mean, when you think about it, “adventure” is possibly the most nebulous genre label out there. According to Random House, an adventure is “an exciting or very unusual experience.” That covers just about everything, from kidnapping to war to getting carried off by a twister to a magical land full of short people. Who’s publishing books about boring people these days, anyway? (Wait – don’t answer that.)

My trichotomy isn’t perfect, I realize. It basically ignores books that fall into some other neat genre category – historical fiction, fantasy, etc. But it covers what teachers are expecting, and let’s face it: when a child or parent asks, “Where are your adventure books?”, it has school assignment written all over it. (I’ll leave my opinion of required genre reading for another post.)

Anyway, this how I distinguish spies, pirates, and survival:

1. Spies – Helicopters, guns, and international intrigue. Generally contemporary.
2. Pirates – Shiver me timbers, this speaks for itself. Generally historical.
3. Survival – Kid versus nature, wild animals and/or crazy people in any day and age.

The plan is to follow up this post with some examples in each category, with particular emphasis on books boys like! Let’s see if I can stick to it.