Just as I remember in middle school, this is the best book of the first 3! You can truly tell how much Paulsen improved as a writer between “Hatchet” and “Brian’s Winter”. This is written beautifully, and it is incredibly immersive. Loved every second of it! The nostalgia is real!!!

Personal Response: "Brian's Winter" was a great book from the series of "Hatchet". Also this book was based on a series of events that happened in this timeline.

Plot: Brian is lost in the woods and is surviving out in the wilderness alone as a survivor of a plane crash. As winter approaches, Brian is hurrying to make up for lost time. About a month into winter there are gunshots across the lake and another plane overhead. Brian believes himself to be hallucinating these things and dismisses them. Another month by, Brian finds himself along tracks of something man-made. Following these tracks, Brian finds a trapping family that has been in the area for about three weeks. Brian stays with them and shares his story before the next plane comes with another shipment to civilization.

Characterization: Brian. Brian is the main character and is a teenage boy surviving in the wilderness alone after a plane crash.

Setting: The story takes place in modern times in a secluded forest far from any cities. Winter surrounds the forest and there is no sign of any cities around.

Thematic Connection: I believe that the author is trying to tell the readers to be aware of one's surroundings and always think about what might happen in the coming days.

I recommend this book to anyone who is above the age of 12 and has a quick mind.

Personal Response- I like the book Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen because it is about surviving in the outdoors, which is something I would like to do. It teaches a lot about survival.

Characterization- Brian Robeson and a small Native American family living in the bush are the only characters in the book. Brian is a thirteen year old boy who gets in a plane crash and is the only survivor. He is alone out in the wilderness of Canada. He is brave and ingenious. The small Native American family are characters he meets at the end of the book, which help him to get rescued. David Smallhorn is the name of the father of the family.

Plot- Brian's Winter is about a thirteen year old boy named Brian Robeson who is desperately trying to survive. Brian survives a plane crash and is trapped alone in the Canadian wilderness. Winter comes and Brian is not prepared at all. He learns survival techniques in order to survive the deadly winter. His hatchet is his most valuable survival tool. Some of the survival techniques he learns is to make leather clothing, make a bow and arrow, and to start fires with his hatchet. The first problem Brian faces is a bear attack. The bear knocks down his shelter and steals his fish. Brian kills a deer, but it attracts other animals to his camp. Brian makes friends with a skunk. The bear returns and the skunk sprays the bear and saves Brian. Brian also kills a moose. Brian hears a gun shot and goes looking for who shot the gun. He meets a Native American man. The Native American is David Smallhorn and his family who are trappers. The family saves Brian.

Setting- This book takes place in the harsh Canadian wilderness where the winters are below zero.
The setting is important to the plot because Brian has to survive the weather and many different predators like bears, wolves, and coyotes.

Recommendation- I recommend this book to males or females age 12 and up who have an interest in surviving in the wild or who wants to learn survival techniques. I give this book a five star rating because it has a lot of suspense which makes it very interesting.

Probably one of my favorite books.

The title of my book is “Brian’s Winter”, and it is the sequel to Gary Paulsen’s last book, Hatchet. This book is about how Brian must have survived if he had n teen rescued; and like Gary Paulsen states in the summary: “What if Brian had been left to confront his deadliest enemy-winter?” Although I disliked the book, I must admit that the author (Gary Paulsen) does a great job of emphasizing the fat tat you must never give up in this cracking read that shows how Brian is set to survive winter by learning new things as if winter would be a different world. The thing I disliked about this book was that it did not prove to be as exciting as I thought it would. As the climax of winter crawls into the story, it just stops giving the reader a sensation of being hooked into the book, sine the book stays the same. This happens when Brian begins to get his supplies ready, like a big hunting bow, clothes from rabbit and deer hide and shoes, mittens and a door. The climax is probably when Brian hunts the moose, but after that e is just all set for winter and the thrill f the book does not go any higher since Brian is already ready for any danger and mostly sits around and does nothing. The ending was also a bit disappointing, as Gary Paulsen could’ve made a more bold and exciting way of making Brian leave the woods. In conclusion, this was overall a good (but sometimes boring) story that teaches us how we must prevail in the challenges that life gives s just like Brian did on his journey

Deus in machina

Hatchet ends as follows. Brian, having survived almost two months after crashing in a lake in the Canadian forest, is hit by a tornado. He suffers little harm, but the tail of the airplane, which until now has been completely underwater, is exposed. This allows Brian to enter the still mostly submerged airplane and pull out the survival kit. Although Brian didn't know this when he went after it, the survival kit contains an emergency transmitter. Brian switches it on. Mere hours later a float plane shows up, lands on Brian's lake, and rescues him.

Reading that now, I can't help think to myself, "Deus ex machina". But, to be honest, it didn't bother me even slightly when I read Hatchet. If we were going to get Brian out of his fix, this seemed an entirely reasonable way to do it. Of course the survival kit would contain an emergency transmitter, probably it would be designed to survive a crash and submersion. (A fragile emergency transmitter is not much use, is it?) And of course Brian would flick the switch. As deos ex machinis go, this one seemed pretty reasonable. In the epilog of Hatchet, Gary Paulsen writes

it might be interesting to note that had Brian not been rescued when he was, had he been forced to go into hard fall, perhaps winter, it would have been very rough on him.

That is the premise of Brian's Winter. Thus, Brian's Winter is a retcon. We put the god back in the machine -- no float plane shows up on day 54 to rescue Brian. He must survive the winter on his own.

I enjoyed this a lot. In contrast to Book 2, The River, which felt entirely made up to me, Brian's Winter felt authentic. Now, I want to be clear -- I don't mean to say it felt likely that the events of Brian's Winter would occur. You will note as you read places where Brian got very lucky. Still, an author ought to be allowed at least one implausible event in a story -- the event that allowed the story to occur and makes it worth telling. But more than that, Paulsen knows what he's talking about. In his Foreword he writes

Since my life has been one of survival in winter—running two Iditarods, hunting and trapping as a boy and young man—the challenge became interesting, and so I researched and wrote Brian's Winter, showing what could and perhaps would have happened had Brian not been rescued.

I bought it. Although I, personally, have no factual basis for the belief that Paulsen gets it right, I do recognize the feel of authenticity -- of an author telling a story whose elements are intimately familiar to him. I felt it in Hatchet, and I feel it again in Brian's Winter.

In my opinion, Brian's Winter is as good a book as Hatchet.

Blog review.

Another book read with my 12 yr old.
I loved that GP took a stab at what winter would have been like for Brian.
I’m still shocked to read about trees sounding like shot guns when they freeze. I really really like to hear that.

Fun to talk to my boy about the stories in this book too.

Loved this sequel more than the one before this one. A great story that kept me wondering how this would end for Brian. Nice touch about the skunk, I really had to laugh about it. Easy read and I hope to read book 4 soon! Great series for youngsters and people who like adventure.

I love this survival series of a young boy who goes down in a plane crash in northern Canada and must survive on his own until he is rescued!

Sure, it's an odd alternate-reality sequel, but Gary Paulson wrote it because all the fans of Hatchet wrote to him and were like, but what if that random pilot hadn't come along and saved Brian? I imagine Mr. Paulson was just as interested in that question, so he wrote this book because it needed to be answered. Also, Brian is a badass.

My 3rd grade teacher used to read books aloud to my class, and I remember this one being one of my favorites.

Brian's Winter is a fantastic novel. Written by Gary Paulsen, this novel explores the story of Brian Robeson, a young teen who survives a horrific plane crash over the Canadian wilderness. Unfortunately, Brian is then forced to survive in these minimal and isolated conditions for an extensive period of time. This books provides readers with an alternative story to the conclusion of the novel Hatchet, Gary Paulson's first novel in the Hatchet series. In this alternative story, Brian must survive in his current location throughout the majority of the winter.

To begin, if you are looking for a challenging book to read, Brian's Winter is not for you. This novel contains basic vocabulary, plot summary, and limited characters. Regardless, the novel is very well written. Throughout the course of the novel, Paulsen provides various symbols, themes, and underlying messages that the reader can interpret and reflect upon.

Also, Gary Paulsen is excellent at describing various situations and locations throughout the novel. For example, Paulsen's description of the physical landscape that Brian is enthralled in is incredible. His description properly allows the reader to realistically understand the harsh and disturbing geographic location that Brian is located in. As well as geographic locations, Paulsen does a great job of explaining various characters throughout the novel. Paulsen does a fantastic job of establishing Brian as a important and favorable character. The dialogue, emotions, and thoughts that Brian participates in throughout the novel is elaborate and realistic.

Overall, Brian's Winter is a fantastic and relaxing read. I would recommend this novel to individuals who have enjoyed others novels by Gary Paulsen or enjoy the outdoors.

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this book more than the first. As I read, I realized that most of what bugged me in Hatchet was Brian himself. His emotional outbursts and the way he thought about his parents made him seem a few years younger than thirteen, and it bothered me the whole time. But this book is all about survival. A problem arises, and Brian solves it. As long as you can get past the fact that this is a “what if” book (but really, all fiction is a big “what if” anyway), this is a great sequel to Hatchet.