Stranded

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapter 15-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Background

Authorial Context: Jeff Probst

Jeff Probst is the host of the renowned reality TV series Survivor and an American author of middle-grade adventure/survival novels. Probst has been the host of Survivor since its inception in 2000 and has won three Emmys for his work on the show. Survivor was part of a shift in the early 2000s toward reality television and shows that depicted several people engaged in complex challenges for large cash prizes. Survivor was an immediate success and remains popular today. The show features contestants “cast away” in a remote part of the world, where they must outlast one another and be the last person standing in a game of survival.

Because Jeff has always hosted the show, he has traveled to many wild and diverse locations around the globe. He has been part of what makes the show and its challenges so entertaining to watch. Jeff has witnessed people surviving in all sorts of difficult scenarios, so he was the perfect candidate to create an adventure/survival book series. The Stranded series, largely inspired by Survivor, shifts the focus to children in an actual survival situation while featuring much of the same excitement and action as the show. Stranded focuses not only on survival but also on the theme of Forging a Blended Family, which is an adventure Jeff has enjoyed in his real-life marriage. He wanted to create a survival story for children that also carried a deeper meaning and message about the diversity of families and the importance of teamwork.

While Jeff Probst brought his survival expertise to the project, middle-grade author Chris Tebbetts brought his literary skills and experience in writing novels. The work became a collaborative project. Chris Tebbetts coauthored the Middle School series of books with writer James Patterson, a series that became popular among reluctant readers and those who enjoy humor and relatable fiction. Tebbetts’s more lighthearted approach to writing adds levity to the intense subject matter of the Stranded series, which stays away from becoming too grim or grotesque, instead relying on artistic liberties to tell a thrilling and optimistic story of survival.

Series Context: Stranded

Stranded is part of a three-book series of middle-grade novels by Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts. In the first book, four siblings are stranded on an island after a storm wrecks their uncle’s boat and sweeps him and his first mate are swept away, along with the life raft. The four navigate the challenges of surviving in the wilderness (with no experience or adults to guide them) by using their individual strengths to work as a team. They learn to build fires, find water, and navigate the island, and they try to find ways to signal their location. The book ends on a cliffhanger when their boat (along with most of their supplies) is taken out to sea, leaving them without shelter. In the second book, Stranded: Trial by Fire, the children look for new shelter and food sources and grow accustomed to life on the island. In the third book, Stranded: Survivors, the group finds an abandoned cargo ship and uses its oil to set it on fire and catch the attention of a plane flying overhead. They survive the ordeal and are rescued, ending the series on a happy note.

In two subsequent novels, part of the Stranded: Shadow Island series, the children are again lost at sea, but this time they end up on an island that is already inhabited by a population of people who don’t want anyone to know they are there.