Youth outdoor book recommendations?

[Voyageur]

Traplines North is one of my all time favorite books. Every so often I pull it off the shelf and read it again. I've done this now for 5+ decades. It is a true story about a Canadian family (Ontario). The teenage boys took over the trapline one winter when the father was sick. The book is long out of print, but the last time I checked you could find used copies at affordable prices.

 

[gberb18]

As a kid I loved the book Tenderfoot Trapper by Arthur Catherall. Older book might be hard to find but used to read it several times a year.

 

[DeePow]

My brother got The Campgroubd Kids for my son for his fifth birthday. They’re pretty solid books with a decent plot. The only downside for me is the subtle religious overtone but it didn’t ruin the book by any means.

 

[nodakian]

Pat Macmanus if he likes humorous writing, I loved him growing up and my son laughed until he cried reading my old books. Gary Paulsen has some good stuff, as noted above.

Agree 100% with Pat McManus. We did a family reading when I got my first book, and I fell out of my chair crying from laughing so hard because he was describing me and all my acquaintances.

Two Little Savages by Ernest Thompson Seton. Written in the early 1900s, its style is hard to read for the average modern kid, but the story is great. It was a big inspiration for me, and it contains lots of good outdoor knowledge.

 

[sneek-ee]

2 of the best books ever written:

Where The Red Fern Grows

Last of The Breed

 

[ry_kj_an]

My son and I enjoyed the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody.

 

[elkliver]

+1 on Hatchet and it's sequels

 

[Yooper]

When I was about 13 I went to deer camp with my dad and his buddies. I got put into one of the older guys blinds because he couldn't make it to camp that year. I arrived to find a stack of Penthouse, Hustler and a few other random mags. I've never hunted as hard as I did that year. Daylight to dark in that blind. Really got me into the outdoors for that season. Just something outside the box to consider

 

[TaperPin]

It might be surprising what kids eventually find riveting.
Even as a young kid, fiction was a turnoff - it’s probably brain flaw to lack an ability to suspend disbelief. Full books were also a lot to get through with a short attention span. What I ended up really liking were outdoor magazines of all kinds, both new and old - libraries that had stacks of back issues were a treat. As a young adult that interest grew to include books from authors mentioned in magazines.