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!

My Spanish-speaking student is listening to the English audio version during class and going home and reading this Spanish version at home to make sure she is understanding everything. It's very helpful.

It was just as described!

It's just what we needed for this young reader.

English version is really good

The Spanish Language version of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, is a great adventure/survival story for middle school readers.  Alone in the wilderness with only a hatchet to aid him, the young protagonist faces exterior forces and his own inner fears.

I used this with Spanish-speaking students who are learning English; a good book even after all these years.

Bought this for a Spanish student in my class when we were reading this novel in class

Great.  However, the reading difficulty level in Spanish is much higher than in English. (I'm fluent in both.)