Literature & Fiction
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Hatchet
This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared-and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor. Hatchet has also been nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.
At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills-how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire-and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.
At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills-how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire-and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.
Editorial Reviews
"This is a spellbinding account...a winner."
-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Riveting."
-- Booklist, starred review
-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Riveting."
-- Booklist, starred review
Readers Top Reviews
Veggie QueenS. We
I loved this book. This book had all of the right story leading up to the plot. I love this book because it is a great book for a thrill. When you are reading it you always want to know what is going to happen next. This book was great at having different parts of action and then calmed down and then it went back up again. There was a little bit of foreshadowing in this book that would show how Brian would survive and this gave the reader a little bit of relief. I would like to find more books like this one. I love reading survival books and see how people deal with different challenges. A lot of the time books can give great ideas for what to do in real life. Though surviving with only a hatchet would be hard it is always wanting you to know what will happen next. This is a great book and I would read it again. I want to read more books from Gary Paulson because I loved this book so much. It is an easy and fun read. This book was awesome!
atomicbartVeggie
I read this book with my six year old daughter and her response was incredible. She begged me to read the next chapter each night, and we had wonderful discussions about what is truly important in life. If you have a younger advanced reader I would say go for it!
Kindle Richard
Thatcher would appear to be an unlikely choice for an old guy like me. Written for and classified as Young Adult literature. That having been said, one of the appeals of PBS*s The Great American Read is that it has introduced me to a wide range of literary types. Anne Of Green Gables made me want to encourage my granddaughters to read about a young lady whose unabashed optimism allowed her to be successful in a world where he had none of her classmates' socio-economic advantages. In Hatchet 13 year old Brian was forced to fight for survival without any of today's electronic conveniences. My grandson could benefit from learning that there are situations where it would require him to use his personal strengths to survive in a non-electronic world.
Kindle Richa
This is a GREAT book. It is intended for youth, I think, but I really enjoyed it myself. I have a grandson who is having problems reading so I purchased the kindel book with the audible narration for him. He was enchanted. It really helped him to be able to read the words while listening to the narration. I bought the entire series for him and am so pleased with his response. He is on the third book right now and can hardly waid to finish his chores and homework each night so that he can read more of his book. My thanks to Gary Paulsen for creating a series of books that hold the interest of the reader and encourage them to learn the love of reading.
MamaMoRx Kindle
My husband remembered enjoying this book from his childhood and wanted to share with our own children (8 year old and 6 year old twins). He read the book to them over the course of a couple of weeks and they loved it. Our kids wouldn’t let him get out of reading at least one chapter every night. We just purchased Brians Winter to start tonight and plan on reading them the entire series.
