Out of pure coincidence, I finished reading Guts on the same day I finished reading Hatchet for the first time. This book is a great companion to Hatchet, although I’d recommend not reading them concurrently like I did. Definitely read Guts after, as there can be spoilers.

Guts, Paulsen has a lot more writing experience, and it reads much better. It’s so fascinating what a life Paulsen has lived! I’m amazed he can remember the details from so many of these stories, but they sure are fun to listen to.

I enjoyed “Guts” because it is more than just a book. The author, Gary Paulsen, really shows the reader how he writes his books. He explains his life and how he based his books off of his real life encounters with nature. He explains how in his other books “Hatchet” and the Brian Books he actually tied the stories to his real life. I like that the book is split up into chapters that are based on things that you have to do to survive in the great outdoors. Some of the topics are pretty interesting.


The main character is the author, Gary Paulsen. He fits the part because it is his life story that he is telling through all of the books that he writes. As he is telling the stories behind the other books that he has written, he is telling the back story on it. At the same time he is explaining how he connects his own life to his books.


The book is fairly well written in the aspect that it can't really take place anywhere else. If the book took place in the city, instead of in the woods outside a small town, it would be totally different. It would kind of change the whole story. Since it takes place in the outdoors, it makes the story sound more real. I also like it because the author is descriptive in the sense that if he shoots at something he describes what it sounds like and what he sees and hears around him.

I would recommend the book “Guts” to anybody who likes the outdoors and likes to hunt and fish. It is also a survival book. It explains some of the things that a person would encounter or have to eat.

Guts tells the truth behind Gary Paulsen’s series of Brian Books, and how the stories he made come to life in those books were real-world experiences of his own. This book was a great read that gave more context into the stories I have grown up loving. He details his own tragedies that influenced those in the books, as well as his expertise with survival and making his own bows and arrows. This book was filled with information and humor, making for an interesting yet easy read.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, I am not sure I would include it in my classroom, simply because I wouldn’t quite consider it YAL. However, I would strongly recommend it to any of my students who have enjoyed reading Paulsen’s Brian series, especially if they wished to gain more insight and truth behind the tales he spins.

Geesh I forgot that the first story in this book has about a bazillion reference to death, including a scene wherein a plane breaks in half and the people "spill out" into the water and are eaten by sharks and a really sad scene where a 50 year old man dies of a heart attack (described with vivid detail) at the dinner table?
I remembered when I was reading it aloud to the 3rd graders and they keept asking "is this real"?! and I kept having to say "yes".
that being said he does a pretty great job of tying in his experiences to the fictional texts they inspired.
oh wait! dogs. there are dogs that get thrown. from the back of the plane to the front of the plane. He picks them up and throws them multipule times. it needs to be done, it's for their own good. but still. DOGS GET THROWN!

"The dogs had never seen a turtle before and heaven only knows what they thought- probably that she was an alien sent down specifically to kill and eat dogs."

It's the memoir of the man who wrote The Hatchet series, and the stories that inspired the books. This dude has done everything- raced the Iditarod multiple times, survived mountain man style, worked on movies, flown air planes, worked as a volunteer EMT.

It was a good almost 1-day read. mostly stories and exposition, making up exactly the type of good nonfiction I wanted to read.

It’s always so cool to me to read a book written by someone with direct experience for a subject, he writes about how he hunted, drove dog sleds, and worked as an emergency paramedic, and it’s all his own life he didn’t read about it or watch other people do it to learn about it, he does talk about other peoples experiences but they relate back to something he experienced, something he knows because he lived it. I don’t know it’s just so cool to see a nonfiction book about survival and nature so purely communicated from someone’s life to page.

I was a HUUUUGE Gary Paulsen fan in 4th-6th grade, and for me his books about tough people and their lives in the wilderness never disappointed. My 6th grade class read a few of his books for study which was genuinely my cup of tea. This book is perhaps the closest thing we will get to an autobiography from the author, and it suits me just fine, in fact I wish it were longer. However, a second reading has changed my initial feelings towards it. I remember when my 6th grade teacher read this book to our class and did not finish it, bursting into tears upon reading the author's descriptions of watching a little boy being killed by a deer when the deer did not receive a treat the boy was giving it at an appropriate time. This whole event stayed with me all those years and still does haunt me to this day. Hence, the trouble in rereading it for this review. I was hoping to like this book enough to give it a 4/5 , however I believe that when an author writes a book, no matter what subject matter it is, I think he or she should be mindful of what content is appropriate to include. When I saw the duration and age-level of the book I was shocked.
THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR YOUNGER READERS, no matter how it is marketed.
That does not mean it is a bad book by any means, on the contrary it is a GOOD book, but the descriptions of the aforementioned material I think should have been avoided for the sake of personal wide-spread age appeal and reasoning. Some stories do not need to be broadcast and aimed at younger levels of readers.

"I hunted a great deal with rifles and shot guns and I trapped and snared animals for a living. There are people who say that is wrong, and perhaps they are right - though virtually nothing in nature dies of old age except man and I'm not sure of the morality or immorality of their claim or why it is better for a coyote to kill a rabbit than it is for a man who will also eat the rabbit-but these questions did not exist then for most people."
Powerful words.
This book was great, I loved the Hatchet series as a kid.

Disclaimer....I love Gary Paulsen books. I've loved every one I've ever read. He has a way of writing that seems so normal and plain, but once you stop to look more closely, you realize how rich it is. This book is an excellent choice for those who've read Hatchet or any of the other Brian books because Paulsen tells the tales of his own life that played into his writing of those books. I think reading "Guts" at this time also sparked some extra interest in me because we just took a trip out west this summer. I was able to relate to his tales of the wilderness adventures since we had been in the wilderness. I think this book is most enjoyed by those who've read some of his other works, but even if you haven't, this is a well-written book with the "real" adventures of Gary Paulsen. Fantastic.

Guts has some really crazy stories that make it hard to realize that the book is actually a non-fiction. Gary does a really good job describing these events. Like when he was starving in the forest and said that he would eat anything that would make a normal person vomit just to survive. This really painted a picture in my head of how hungry Gary was and how desperate he was for any edible substance. When Gary got attacked by the cow moose when he was riding his sled of dogs I was astonished. If I was in Gary's position I would have never believed that I would make it out alive. Just picturing getting stomped by a moose like that using Gary's words made me cringe inside. The story about Gary watching the child feed the half tamed moose at the park and how the moose freaked out when the child made him reach for the candy had me in disbelief. I couldn't imagine that a moose would stab a child it's pointed hooves just for making it reach further to get the candy. The story really showed me how crazy of a life Gary has lived. For him to live through all of these crazy stories and tell about them is really amazing.

It start off when he was a little kid he want to be a outdoor hunter all the time he learned how to hunt and how to be quirt hunter and when to take the right shot and how to field dress a deer
How to mauch a homemade bow and homemade arrows and homemade broadhead
He also tell how to pack a deer back to the house and how aim and how to shoot.

He learned how to hunt and how to fish and how to live out in the woods and how the dog sled work and how to take care of the dogs and how to make thing and how to live through a plane crashed and how to have fun in the wild and how to feed himself and how to feed his dogs and how to kill something for him to live how to put food on the table for his family

i thought this book was awwwwwwwwsome i first choose this book because i love gary paulsen and i love hachet. it is a autobiography about his life and what he did in his life which soon he truned into a book called hachet/brain song. the setting is is kinda everywhere first in forestes then up in moutains and kinda everywhere. the main chraracter is ofcrouse gary paulsen and this guy has been through sooooo much through his life he has seen people die and hes seen big animals and this guy has seen and just has been through soo much. the problems is just things that are thrown at him in life and the only way he really fixes it is being smart and just really keep moving forward. my opion is that this book teaches you alot and that it will shock ou soo much because like i said this guy has had one heck of a life and its pretty cool cause when your reading this book the things you read that he has went through you would like read that and go o yeah i remeber that from hachet or brain song or brains winter and its really cool and intersting and really fun to read.