How would you feel if you were to survive in the wilderness with a person in a coma? Would it make you depressed? Scared and hopeless? Even wanting to give up forever? I suppose I would. But Brian, a teenager who had been stranded before, is not like us. He has experience, determination, and a strong sense of purpose. He's not, and never will be the type of person to ditch a person needing saving. In this case, Derek, who fell into a coma after being struck by lightning. In The River, we can see how much Brian has grown. He went from a small cub to a majestic lion. He will rip apart any obstacles facing him just to save Derek. All he wants is for Derek to stay alive. He does not care about any hardships. Any rapids or lightning. Anything except for the wellness of Derek.

This book is awesome it had a lot of action. And I think this book should be the 3rd book because its about a whole different story and the 3rd book is about the 1st book. I liked this book a lot and wan't to finish the last book. The book is about a boy who is stranded on a lake unless he can travel 100 miles to a trading place and his guide is unresponsive. Find out of he makes it or not. This book is a level V.

This sequel to the classic book "Hatchet" has an interesting story. With people wanting to shoot a documentary for Brian's famous story, a man named Derek comes and asks him if He and Derek, would go back into the eastern Canada wilderness, with Derek taking notes for military survival techniques. Once both Brian and Derek make it to the vast Canadian wilderness, a few days after arriving a freak lightning storm causes major conflict, and causes them to lose their communication with the rescue squad.

I chose to read his book because I absolutely loved the book "Hatchet", although I didn't think the sequel wasn't all that great, it was pretty good though.

I thought that Gary Paulsen made a good storyline for this second book though, I mean for a sequel book, it wasn't that bad, I am really excited to read the third and fourth book in this series.

I didn't really like the character Derek, if you read the book, you'll see what I mean, but I also didn't like the ending of the book, it could have ended with a better storyline, again, if you read it, you'll see what I mean

Overall, this was a really good book, I could have been better, but it was a nice book. I am really interested if they will make movies for this series, but I'm not sure if they already have made movies for this series.

I feel that just about anyone can read this book, it is a PG book you could say. There is no swearing, or anything bad, it really is a book that a school teacher could read to her elementary students, if she wanted too.

There in nothing potentially offensive in this book at all! It has a very fun storyline for just about anyone! I really enjoyed this book.

Excellent story and audiobook!

I really liked almost everything in this book. I loved the similes that the author used. I loved the characters. I loved the descriptive words. This book was a real page turner. Got me wanting more. I never really found a dull moment with this book. That can be a bad thing for some people. You could easily get confused with what is happening in this book. This book is a must read for about anyone.

Hatchet was one of my favorite books as a young boy; it fed my desire to travel far away from my suburban existence to face the unknown. And here was a boy forced into extraordinary circumstances who survived! I didn't care that it was fiction and highly unlikely at times. I teach Hatchet now to my 7th graders and they enjoy it (especially the boys) for the same reasons I did.

I only recently discovered that Gary Paulsen wrote several sequels to Hatchet, three now to be exact. So I re-read Hatchet and then prepared to continue on new adventures into the wild with Brian Robeson; except that, from the first page, something about this story is not quite right.

It starts with a ridiculous premise: A team of adults comes to Brian to admit that "we (being THE Army, THE astronauts, very vague here) pretend to survive. But nobody in our field has ever had to do it....We want you to teach us. Not from a book...but really teach us." This is just too much to believe. Having been in the U.S. Army, I can say that there is little here that Brian could actually teach a group of specially-trained adults about survival. But, I understand, it's a YA book, the premise can be silly (I guess, though I expect better from Paulsen); nevertheless, I soldiered on. Soon enough, Brian finds himself with an odd companion in the wild. I say "odd" because he is with a psychologist, you know, one with a PhD, but this man speaks with child-like wonder and follows Brian around writing down all of Brian's thoughts and actions, however trivial they might be...and they are trivial, believe me! Anyway, disaster soon strikes the extremely child-like pyschologist and Brian is left to save the day, in a plot that winds and weaves and rolls lazily by like the river that this story is appropriately named after.

This story is smaller in scope, covering a mere couple of days, one week at the most, whereas the first novel covered a span of nearly two months. Prepare yourself for that, readers, and be prepared for a let-down.

There are some issues that I'm not used to experiencing in a Gary Paulsen story; there is no real tension in the story; no real build-up to a climax; no real character development of Brian or any at all from his companion.

Part of what made Hatchet so readable was that Brian discovered something new about himself and about his environment every moment he was in the wild. Here, Brian just states words along the likes of 'I've been here before." So have I, the reader, and I expected more. This feels like a cash-grab by Paulsen; there was no reason for this book to be written. I hope for better from the other sequels, and, again, I expect better from Gary Paulsen...

This story had showed me to fight against your fears and when you fight against them you won’t fear them again. First I’m going just to tell you a short summary on the main parts of this book. This story is about a guy called Brian ones few years ago he had crash and pass more than 1 month in an island with nobody else, until finally he found a packet with a radio and called another airplane to rescue him, some years pass and the government want Brian to teach them how to survive in the forest with no technological help so they could teach to others and when emergencies happen more people could survive, so he accepted and travel again to a forest but now with a guy the is a psychologist and will learn lots of things in this travel; now inside the forest Brian and the psychologist pass threw lots of dangerous events but they survive easily, Brian didn’t want to take any supply and the only help he got was a knife and a radio in case of a emergency. Also I learn lots of new techniques to keep the reader focus on the book. I think Gary Paulsen really describe a lot the confront fillings of Brian when he was traveling and inside the forest. I like the way he describe they personality of the psychologist and the personality of the mature Brian now in the island. Then this book in my opinion could be much better in comparison with Hatchet. This book had lots of imagery especially when Brian remember the first travel but I think Gary had much more imagery in the first book especially when Brian remember all the easy and especial things he got with his family. At last I will tell you my personal opinion of this book. This book was good but I think that Gary could describe more especially the introduction, in my opinion he make it to short to explain it well, the raising and the falling actions were good they were simple but good, the climax to me was great he explain it well and make you understand it easily without confusing you. In conclusion I like this book but I wouldn’t recommended to a friend because it had lots of things to work on.

Uh hey yeh

I think people forget that this book is meant for young readers. . . The likelihood of a child being asked to teach members of the military about survival is highly unlikely. But, when you’re a young kid reading something like that, it draws them in and makes them want to read a book like this.

A lot of kids have a giant imagination. And a lot of kids played ”army” when they were young. Dressed up and had toy guns and made booby traps. Imaginations went wild. But guess what, it made for a great time. This book has elements of a lot of creativity. Realistic or not. Who cares. This book does have things that are unrealistic in it for sure. . But it is still a great book because it has this ability to draw kids in and read a light story about adventure. .

Hate it or love it. . That’s my review.

Summary:
This book was about brain in the last book it talked about him going on a plane and falling out of the sky the he survived in a deserted place and got out safely. This book is similar because at the beginning there is a person named Derick to see how he did it so he wanted brain to go out and do it again, but this time Derick would be at his side the whole time to take notes and if anything happened all he had to do was radio in. But then something tragic happened. The person that he was with fell into a coma and brain had to get him back within 6 days cause of a comma. He looks all over for stuff that can help him and he finds a map of just a river so he makes a raft and after a long time at sea he sees the top of a roof goes there saved by 2 men and a boy then finds out its a minor comma that derrick is in and he is saved.
Assessment:
I first read the back of the book and I found out it should by like Hatchet and I was right. It wasn't very predictable but when I got halfway through I wasn't very pleased that they made both books so similar. But the book did do a good job of not letting the reader know if they would survive or not. Also through the middle all it talked about really was him on the river and I think that could of been fixed in many ways. Finally I overall like the creativity of Gary Paulson for think everything up and actually adding an epilogue unlike other book that give you a good ending it just that the reader just wants to know/learn more about the story.
Would I recommend this to others?:
Heck No, this book was beyond boring. Even though it had a great, great story plot there just wasn't enough action. Its literally brain rowing a raft until he found some place that was inhabited by people. The book even says in the epilogue that he had bruises on his hand then he went to the hospital to get it fixed. Notice it said the Hospital that just shows how long the story was based on the river. In conclusion this could a great book with a lot of changes.

I read the book The River by Gary Paulsen. This book is an exceptionally good book. Gary Paulsen does a good job of describing the settings and what takes place in the book. The characters are very well described and fit the role in the book very well.

Brian who is the main character in this book fits the role perfectly. Brian is a high school kid who was stuck in the wild in a book before this. Brian has a very strong personality and is very strong as an individual. Brian has had a lot of things put on his shoulders since he got out of the wild. Another character named Derek who is a scientist asks Brian if he wants to relive his experience in the wild. Brian does not know what to say to Derek. Derek is a very strong willed guy that will not give up when it comes to something big like he is forced to do now.

During the book Brian has to decide if he wants to go back into the wild and relive his experience. It is a tough decision for Brian because he had to go through so much by himself. Brian decides to go through with the idea and he grows so much as a character going with another person. This book ends really good and has a strong influence on a lot of kids ages 14 to 18. Males would really like this book because there is a lot of action. This book has a rating of about 4 because there is a lot of good describing details and great characters to fit the roles.

I thought this book was stunning! It really showed me what courage is all about. This book is about a man named Brian Robeson and he was once stranded in a forests because the plane that he was riding in had crashed... He somehow survived this tragic event, and while in the forest, he had only a small hatchet.
After this amazing event he was immediately surrounded by radio stations, television stations, news reporters and etc. One day he was home alone and a group of instructors came to his house. They worked with the government and they wanted to watch/learn about Brian's survival and the techniques he used to survive by himself in the deep woods... After little thinking Brian was interested. He was going to go back out into the woods and teach them how he survived. Out on this trip he was accompanied with the psychologist named Derek.
The trip was very intense. The characters were placed in very serious situations. It was cool to see how they reacted in certain situations. These situations made me want to keep reading. It was so suspenseful. I wanted to see what their next challenge was going to be. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys action and suspense.
*courage is just a mindset*