Read this when I was in the 5th grade. One of THE best books you can read as a kid. One of the best books you can read now. I just found out…that this is a SERIES!?!? kinda sorta freaking out.

Hatchet comes from a long tradition of YA books about young people surviving on their own in the wilderness. When the pilot of the small prop plane he is on dies and crashes into a lake, the protagonist, Brian, has to survive in a remote Canadian wilderness with only his hatchet (a recent gift) as survival tool. This is the type of story that fires the imagination of kids between about 9 and 12, but that’s not why I remember this book.

I didn’t read Hatchet as a kid. The reason it is memorable to me is because my own kid, at age 11, excitedly brought this book to me insisting that I read it. I had been reading to him since he was tiny, and when he was a bit older I started giving him books that I had loved as a kid (A Stranger Came Ashore, The Light in the Forest, Johnny Tremain, etc.) to read on his own. Now he had reached a point where he was finding and reading books on his own, and after reading this one, was returning the favor, sharing his new favorite with dad. Of course I read it, and the two of us had a grand old time discussing it together. Made me so proud! Which is why Hatchet has a special place in my heart.

This story is the middle grade version of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks.

This book follows Brian Robeson, a 13 year-old boy that is having a rough go at life. His parents have recently divorced and he’s holding a big secret to himself as to why, so his father doesn’t get hurt.

But, just when he thinks that his life couldn’t possibly get worse, he boards a small plane and sits up front as a co-pilot. The pilot is jovial and Brian likes talking with him —that is until he has a heart attack and dies mid-air. All Brian wanted to do was get to his father’s house and now THIS.

Brian knows that he has two choices. “He could wait for the plane to run out of gas and fall or he could push the throttle in and make it happen sooner.” Yikes!!!! I wouldn’t know how to act at 30 let alone 13! This is a situation straight out of a nightmare!

From running into possums, a wolf and a bear and having barely anything at all to eat , Brian must make do with the two things that he has —his knowledge and his hatchet.

Trigger warning for discussion of suicide. If one thing came out of this horrific adventure, it is that Brian became a better version of himself, braver and more appreciative of life itself.

“Two true things...He was not the same and would never be again like he had been...and the other one was that he would not die; he would never let death in again. He was new.”

4 stars! I listened to this on audio and would definitely recommend it!

don't read this book. This was a waste of paper and I do not understand how anyone could be raving about this. I personally was disappointed when Brian didn't die even though he did about everything possibly wrong. First off, Brian whines about about his mother and father divorcing and after hearing about it so much I didn't feel for an instant sorry. In fact, I was about to rip up the book. People are being killed by bombs and starving every day and here you are whining about a minor problem. The literary technique here was just annoying. The secret...the secret...the secret...the secret. I get that it is the secret!!!!! Next Brian flys a plane away from disaster without skills people train for for years, has so much experience with wilderness shows that he knows how to survive, doesn't encounter many problems even though he makes it seem like he is dying and thinks he has sympathy with the reader, then kills himself but doesn't by such a lucky chance. Next he is the New Brian, that whole comparison thing was just worthless and for a two year old, and speaks like he is all this wise guy and is going so deep into our thoughts. You don't have to put in my soul in every sentence to make it seem so wise because what he thinks is deep is so stupid and like you didn't think of that before? I think a first grader could make a more deeper insight into life. Of course he happens to survive and is reunited with his family even though I was literally in tears that he didn't suffer the worst death ever for his annoying everything that made me almost shred every page into pieces. This book is childish because so many worst things could happen in life but he makes this seem like the worst and because of his stupid advice, has a too predictable plot and too unrealistic of a story, and made me want to kill Brian myself than feel bad for him like I was supposed to. May be a one year old will enjoy this otherwise throw the book in the trash without regret and do us all a favor to rid this world of useless and annoying nonsense. Now excuse me, I am going off to read War and Peace, a book worth my time and paper.

Hatchet is the first book within Brian's Saga. Now this kid went through so much in such little time. Like hot damn. I wasn't prepared for any of it. Which is probably why I was completely hooked. Lowkey, would not survive like this kid did. Well, I actually don't really know about that, but I don't think I would be able to kill an animal. So, yeah, maybe.

Other than his survival skills being set in motion, or dodging animals along the way, the overall secret that he was keep was kind of meh to me. Like, I get it, he saw what he saw. Then his parents were getting a divorce and he didn't know what to do. I was surprised that he never mentioned anything when he was found and reunited with his parents. Mostly because I definitely would have said something if it was me in his position.

In the end, this was entertaining.

If you only look at the cover of the book, I think you will be wrong in guessing the story presented in this book. I did not expect this book to present a story that was outside of the speculations I had thought about.

The story is very exciting and unique, but there are some parts of this story that do not make sense to me and that is sometimes something that makes me get confused and amaze with this story. When Brian fell from the plane into the lake, I was flattered by his ability to get back up and I thought how could Brian, who was a child, be so mature and have extraordinary survival instincts, just imagine a 13 year old boy could do that. Survived for 52 days in the forest by only relying on his previous life experiences to find ways to eat and drink.

I also experienced a surge of emotions regarding the disappointment experienced by Brian in the middle of the story, where from that moment he began to change his thoughts on his previous identity to a new identity, but thankfully I was very happy with the ending of this story because it was as expected.

I was roped into reading this classic YA for reasons, not realizing I had actually read it way back when I was in school in 7th grade. I started reading it and said, "Damn, I hate it when authors use this kind of tone for kids, emphasizing 'secret' so damn much in extremely short and supposedly powerful ways that just sounds so faux-mysterious."

A second later it dawned on me that I knew the rest of the story. Another second later, I realized it wasn't because the survival trope was so damn common.

It was because I HAD read it and just plain forgot it.

Huh.

Well, anyway, it made me think about how survival tropes haven't really been around anymore. I mean, sure, we have Hunger Games and just about every Anime out there, but there's not too much in modern lit, not that I've seen. Notable examples to the contrary are Life of Pi, etc., but many of these serve as either satire or dark commentary.

Whatever happened to this kind of genre, especially SF? Heinlein's juveniles used to be full of it.

How odd.

Oh? What about this book? lol

It's fine. It made me angry and nostalgic in turn.
Mostly entirely because of the Boy Scouts. I remember survival training and then I remembered that the whole thing of the BOY SCOUTS is dead now. Survival training and survival literature have both died.

I think that's kinda ironic.

As i read this book to my kids it left me wondering if i had read it before. I knew that if i did, it was in my youth. Last night a bit of memory must have triggered in my brain. I did read this book before. I read it in the High School Library in a single sitting when i was 15 or 16. It's a simplistic story. One PoV. Simple sentences and a clear line of thought make it a swift read.

Not sure if it's the writer or just the fact that it's a YA book, but i like the simplicity of the writing. Not too flowery nor academic. He does tend to repeat things way too much. But the writing is sound. PoV is not an issue with a one-character survival story. Kids are enjoying it.

Very repetitious. At times unbearable. You can literally skip several sentences per page with no negative repercussions. And that's exactly what i did.

In fact, it makes the story clearer to skip the repetitive sentences. At first i thought it was because the main character hit his head and suffered a concussion. But No, that is the author's writing style blaring through the story. Not sure why he did it? Maybe he figured it would make his story more intense.

The word count could be cut by at least 1/3 with a proper edit.

Sometimes you read a famously classic book and it is such a disappointment. This is not one of those times. This book is amazing! Its a wonderful survivalist tale of a young boy who changes not only physically but emotionally during his time alone in the northern woods after a plane crash. His bravery and ingenuity surprises himself even more than the reader.

Growing up, my favorite book was My Side of the Mountain, about a boy living off the land in the mountains. It was my boyhood daydream. This book, which was a joy to read, is like a cousin to My Side of the Mountain, but with a more dangerous challenge facing the character. Reading it was like revisiting my childhood. It’s good to remember those days, and to remember also that survival takes many forms, both in childhood and adulthood.

3.5 Stars

This was a re-read of a book I was forced to read in middle school. I recall liking it but not remembering too many details. Reading it as an adult, I definitely think it's a great book and a good adventure story.

To Build a Fire Meets Castaway (minus Wilson) is what was running through my mind as I'm reading this story: 13 yr old Brian is in a single-engine airplane on his way to his father's for the summer when it crashes into the Canadian wilderness. He is all by himself with nothing but a hatchet that his mother had given him, and he must figure out how to survive while maintaining hope that he will be rescued.

I love reading these stories, but they also give me a bit of anxiety since I always try and put myself in that situation. I think, "What would I do?". Well, considering my idea of camping is a working toilet and an air mattress, I would be a goner for sure.

3.5 stars

This is a book that really has you rooting for poor unlucky Brian to have something turn out right for once, he faces horrible situation after horrible situation! I love survival stories, children without adult stories, this is quite a tough story, I err on the survival stories where you have some sort of home created, some comforting details, much appreciated because of the hardship. Brian certainly had a lot of hardship and how ironic that when he finds  after 2 months of hell, a survival pack from the crash with a sleeping bag, gun, cooking stuff and copious amounts of dried food, a plane lands to rescue him before he's even had a spoonful!  We began to find it amusing just how unlucky Brian managed to be! And phew!  noticing this was a series of books we wondered if he would get rescued! But luckily for Brian he does!

The cover on this book is a perfect example of an illustrator not reading the story, again and again we are told how Brian is weather beaten and sunburnt to a crisp, and yet the cover picture makes me think of a 1980s new romantic look complete with black eyeliner!

Read on open library.