3-1/2 stars

n  On his way to visit his father after his parents have divorced, Brian's plane crashes, deep in the Canadian wilderness. Brian is the only survivor. How will he keep himself alive?n

This book was recommended to me by a kid at church, and her enthusiasm convinced me to pick it up.

I would have loved this book when I was the right age for it. It's an excellent tale of determination and resourcefulness, as 12-year-old Brian explores his surroundings and searches his brain for every little bit of information that might help him survive. It alternates very believably between Brian's despair (how will anyone find him; is he going to be stuck being a wild woods person forever?) and his survival instinct. He's lucky in a number of ways: the plane crashes in a lake, so he has drinking water. A ledge of bedrock with a small cave provides him shelter. But aside from that, he's on his own to figure out how to eat, how to stay warm, how to keep from being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

I hope that if anything like this ever happens to me, I can handle it with the creativity, ingeniousness, and grace that Brian did. In this aspect, this was a 5-star book.

But it's a 3-star read for me because that's all that was in the book. The beginning tantalizes readers with The Secret that Brian is keeping about his mother, but it's a feeble attempt at adding psychological depth to a story that didn't really need it, and it didn't add up to anything anyway, so for me, it fell completely flat and detracted from the story rather than rounding it out, especially when it was resolved with a throwaway line in the epilogue.

I have very mixed feelings about the epilogue in general. On one hand, I appreciated learning the long-term effects of isolation and near-starvation on Brian. On the other hand, I found it irritating and a bit too much.

So from my adult perspective, I have mixed feelings about this story. But I can see why it's a classic and still in print 30+ years after its first publication. I could hardly put it down, and it made me seriously start thinking about whether I'm carrying enough food and warm clothing with me at all times -- it's haunting that way.

They let you board the plane with an AXE!?!

Friggin' awesome. My 3rd grade teacher read this book aloud to my class, a chapter a day, and I remember being absolutely enthralled every single day. She read it to us right before first recess, so whenever that day's chapter ended with a cliffhanger we had the whole recess to discuss what we thought was going to happen next (and act out our own renditions of the time Brian got attacked by a bear).

Hatchet is a Young Adult classic and award winner that I have heard a lot about over the years and have always wanted to read. I love it when I am searching for an audiobook and books like this pop up as available. I think, “Ah ha! I can finally get to this one!”

It did not take me long to get through Hatchet during my daily lunchtime walks. It held my interest throughout, but probably wasn’t even long enough to lose it! It is definitely geared toward pre and early teens – however, there are a couple of more difficult topics (like death and survival) that this might be a kids first introduction to (unless they are like me and started reading Stephen King at 12!) If my kids decide to try this one out, I will be there for them if they have any questions about it.

Should you read this book? It is not bad for a quick read, but it may prove to be too simple for some peoples’ tastes. If you can adjust your mindset and think of it like a 10- to 13-year-old would, I think you will appreciate it more. Luckily, as I mentioned it is not very long, you are not committing too much of your time if it ends up not being your cup of tea.

This was a favorite book of mine as a young kid and I remember why!! Such a page turning survival story! 13 year old, Brian Robeson, is flying in a small plane to meet his father, when all of a sudden his pilot has a heart attack and dies mid flight. Brian is scared to death and doesn't know what to do....he manages to get the plane down but he's alone in the Canadian wilderness and no one knows where he is....we see his journey of survival with nothing but a hatchet and his windbreaker take place. It's emotional and fast paced from the very beginning. I have to give this 5 stars just because of the level of engagement I had from the moment I picked this book up. He's also keeping a secret about his mother after his parent's divorce and he continues to relive some of that trauma.

I realize now that I LOVE survival stories!

3.5 stars I forgive you for eating the turtle eggs, Brian.

Read for our classics readalong series! Discussion next Friday 5/29 on the blog.

My sweet, sensitive 9 year old is reading this in ELA and absolutely loving it. He recommended I read it, and since I never have, of course I bought a copy! This is some heavy stuff for kids, but the appeal is obvious. It’s a grown up story (at least for my son) with serious situations. It’s more literary than most books he’s drawn to. I think it will change him as a reader. I can’t wait to see his reaction to the ending!

Author Gary Paulsen takes us through teenager Brian's 2-month survival story in the remote wilderness of Canada. Although this story is often on middle-school reading lists, amazingly, I've never read it myself, so I thought I better rectify this.

Positives:
1. I could readily empathize with Brian's wonders, fears and accomplishments;
2. being from northern Canada myself, I was quite pleased when I correctly recognized the flora and fauna Brian encountered as food sources, such as his so-called "gutberries" (chokecherries), "nutbushes" (chestnut shrubs) and "fool birds" (ruffed grouse); and,
3. if read aloud or freely chosen for personal reading, I could easily see older primary and upper-elementary students enjoying this survival/adventure story.

Negatives:
1. phrasing was repetitive at times and could be distracting; and,
2. Brian's encounter with the skunk was quite the head-shaker for me - even a 6-year old wouldn't have done what Brian did!

As far as survival stories involving young people go, I enjoyed this one much more than Where the Crawdads Sing, because it is more realistic/believable to me, but the book Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell still tops my list!

"There were these things to do."

After being ambushed by a porcupine, bulldozed by a moose, ransacked by a tornado and ceaselessly blitzkrieged by mosquitos, chances are superlative that I'd have thrown in the towel and ceded Mother Nature its victory. Not so for Brian Robeson, who taps into unprovenanced reserves of resilience in the wake of each setback. Stranded following a crash landing in a remote stretch of forest south of the Canadian border, teenaged Brian must make do with little more than naked intuition and his trusty hatchet to survive.

We've heard it said that necessity (and military advantage) is the mother of invention. It's what motivates Brian to try out turtle eggs and, I suspect, it's what led our ancestors to try their first sip of cow's milk. (Hello, lactase persistence!) Of all the godforsaken tribulations Brian faces, none weigh so heavily as the incessant dread of hunger, an enfeebling thrumming that is never truly quelled, only held in abeyance for a time. Meals that might have been considered inedible back home become a delicacy in the New Life of Brian.

It wouldn't be much of a story if the only character in the book was mauled by a bear or succumbed to dehydration, so it is no spoiler to report that Brian, somehow, survives to tell the tale. The details are sparse and often skipped over with haste. Brian rallies and lives to fight another day (fifty-four of them, to be exact) seems to be the punchline. While young readers may draw inspiration from Paulsen's Bildungsroman, it's doubtful anything here will prepare you for actual survival in the wilderness, hatchet or no.

Paulsen isn't a lyrical writer by any stretch, either, often using repetition of common themes and emotions to carry the narrative. I'd say this is the perfect summer read for a youngster within earshot of middle school; any older and the value of Paulsen's by-the-numbers tale drops off precipitously.

Note: This review is republished from my official website.

Hatchet (Brian's Saga #1), Gary Paulsen

Hatchet is a 1986 young-adult wilderness survival novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen.

It is the first novel of five in the Brian's Saga series. Brian Robeson is a thirteen-year-old son of divorced parents. As he travels from Hampton, New York, to Canada to visit his estranged father when the pilot of his small prop plane suffers a heart attack.

Brian is forced to crash-land the plane in a lake--and finds himself stranded in the remote Canadian wilderness with only his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present before his departure. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوازدهم ماه اکتبر سال 2002میلادی

عنوان: ت‍ب‍ر؛ نویسنده: گ‍ری‌ پ‍ائ‍ل‍س‍ون‌ (پ‍ل‍س‍ن‌)؛ مت‍رج‍م م‍ت‍ی‍ن‌ پ‍درام‍ی‌؛ ت‍ه‍ران س‍روش‌ (ان‍ت‍ش‍ارات‌ ص‍دا و س‍ی‍م‍ا)، 1380؛ در 153ص؛ شابک 9644356004؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 20م

داستان نوجوانی را روایت می‌کند، که پدر و مادرش، جدا از هم زندگی می‌کنند؛ او برای نخستین بار، سوار هواپیمایی ملخی می‌شود، تا به دیدار پدرش برود؛ در راه، خلبان هواپیما سکته می‌کند، و نوجوان بی‌تجربه، تمام تلاشش را می‌کند، تا با برج مراقبت تماس بگیرد، اما موفق نمی‌شود؛ هواپیما سقوط می‌کند، و او در محیطی ناشناخته، تنها می‌ماند؛ در حالیکه تنها یک «تبر» به همراه دارد؛

نقل نمونه متن از آغاز داستان تبر: («برایان رابسون» از پنجره ی هواپیمای کوچک، به دشتهای سبز و بی‌انتهای شمالی، خیره شده بود؛ هواپیما، یک هواپیمای نمایشی کوچک، از نوع «سسنا 406» بود، با موتوری پر سر و صدا، که امکان هرگونه گفتگو و صحبت را، از بین برده بود؛ «برایان» هم حرف زیادی برای گفتن نداشت؛ سیزده ساله بود، و تنها مسافر آن هواپیما؛ خلبان که نامش …؛ نامش چه بود؟ «جیم»، «جک»، یا چیزی شبیه به آن.؛ به نظر چهل و خرده‌ ای سال داشت.؛ از زمانیکه برای بلند شدن آماده می‌شد، حرفی نزده بود.؛ در حقیقت از وقتی که «برایان» به فرودگاه کوچک «همپتون» نیویورک، برای سوار شدن به آن هواپیما آمده بود - یعنی مادرش او را آورده بود - خلبان فقط چهار یا پنج کلمه با او حرف زده بود: - در جای کمک خلبان بنشین …؛»؛ پایان نقل؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

(Sigh) Oh this book

Plot - 14/20
Characters - 15/20
Creativity - 15/20
Writing - 16/20
Pace - 8/10
Ending - 8/10
76/100 = C+
3.5/5 stars

I enjoyed this book but it wasn't anything special in my opinion. I read this because one of my school friends said it was his favorite.. ever so I had to give it a go! Wasn't bad but didn't blow my mind or anything. I was completely content in putting and down to do other things, wasn't gripped at all... wait on second thought Brian ends up dropping the Hatchet in the water. That sense was intense and gripping besides that I found myself just along for the ride.

What I'd read this book for: if you're looking for a short and easy read. a vaca, no hard thinking or new world's, etc.

In all, it's good book and I can see how it became a classic for middle grade students.