Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is an intense, fast, exciting read. Many kids report that this is the first school-assigned book they fell in love with.
Families can talk about Brian's failures and triumphs and how they change his attitude and viewpoint.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Jessica Pierce
Muscular prose, plus an accurate depiction of the necessities of survival from an author who has lived the details, makes this a riveting, intelligent read. Hatchet has won dozens of awards and appears on many summer-reading lists -- and for good reason.
Gary Paulsen does not romanticize the difficulties Brian faces. Readers witness his gut-wrenching sickness from eating too many berries and his shock when he realizes he has never before heard total silence: "The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet ... it lasted only a few seconds, but it was so intense that it seemed to become part of him." Brian's failures and triumphs are presented as equal parts of one life-altering experience.
In the two months he spends in the wild, Brian undergoes countless emotional and physical changes. Paulsen keeps the reader at Brian's side as he discovers how strong he has always been.
Hatchet is a fascinating thrill of a book that will keep readers mesmerized to the last page.
From The Book
He would not forget his first hit. Not ever. A round-shaped fish, with golden sides, sides as gold as the sun, stopped in front of the arrow and he aimed just beneath it, at the bottom edge of the fish, and released the arrow and there was a bright flurry, a splash of gold on the water. He grabbed the arrow and raised it up and the fish was on the end, wiggling against the blue sky.
Plot Summary:
A city boy is stranded in the Canadian wilderness, equipped with nothing but a hatchet and the clothes on his back. Readers get a riveting view of Brian's struggle to survive for the next two months, forever changing his attitude toward the twentieth-century civilization to which he is eventually returned.
Related Books:
Fans may also enjoy Paulsen's The Island, as well as the companion volumes to Hatchet (Brian's Return, The River, and Brian's Winter). All are about people who learn to love the world around them, even when doing so is difficult. Reading these books can only build affection for nature. As one twelve-year-old reader says, "Hatchet made me have to go outside and really look at the trees."
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ViolenceThe main character kills various wild animals in order to feed and defend himself. Brian's life is constantly at risk. Readers are held in suspense by Brian's fight to survive. |
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