Undoubtedly, primitive man sat around the campfire sharing lessons of survival while telling tales of dangerous animals, ferocious storms, and other scourges of nature. We can well envision these early storytellers embellishing their escapades with waving arms and other exaggerated expressions, but these accounts effectively increased man's knowledge of the natural world. Modern readers, like our imagined listeners from times past, have long been captivated by real adventures. The books in this bibliography for middle and high school readers have heart-stopping action, but, more importantly, they present ordinary individuals facing perilous conditions that test their mettle. Limited to realistic environments, the selected titles help readers understand their place in the natural world and illustrate our species's amazing ability to pull through difficult situations using only the resources at hand.