Hatchet

by Gary Paulsen (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

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.

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Kirkus

Starred Review
This is a spellbinding account...a winner.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

When the pilot of a small, two-person plane has a heart attack and dies, Brian has to crash land in the forest of a Canadian wilderness. He has little time to realize how alone he is, because he is so busy just trying to survive. And learning to survive, to plan on food not just for a day but untiland ifhe is rescued, only begins when he stops pitying himself and understands that no one can help him. He is on his own, without his divorced father, whom he was to visit, or his mother, whom Brian saw kissing another man before the divorce. This is a heart-stopping story: it seems that at every moment Brian is forced to face a life-and-death decision, and every page makes readers wonder at the density of descriptive detail Paulsen has expertly woven together. Poetic texture and realistic events are combined to create something beyond adventure, a book that plunges readers into the cleft of the protagonist's experience. Ages 11-13. (September)

Copyright 1987 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission

Review quotes



This book is Awesome!

I love hatchet because its about nature and i really love nature. It is also about a thirteen year old boy (Brian) who went through a big family challenge one thanksgiving his parents went in diverse. In this book he is flying to his dads house when the piolet has a heart attack and dies poor Brian had to survive in nature.

Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen (1931-2021) was one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers, author of three Newbery Honor titles, Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room. He wrote over 100 books for adults and young readers.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781416936473
Lexile Measure
1020
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication date
January 01, 2007
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV001010 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure | Survival Stories
JUV039020 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Adolescence
Library of Congress categories
Survival
Canada
Divorce
Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks
Newbery Medal
Honor Book 1988 - 1988

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