By: Gary Paulsen Publisher: Listening Library Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Audiobook, Unabridged Label: Listening Library Number of Items: 3 Publication Date: April 27, 2004 Reading Level: Young Adult Release Date: April 27, 2004
Product Description: On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness.
More than a survival story, Hathcet is a tale of tough decisions. When all is stripped down to the barest essentials, Brian discovers some stark and simple truths: Self-pity doesn't work. Despair doesn't work. And if Brian is to survive physically as well as mentally, he must discover courage.
Kept me reading It was good because it showed how over time Brian made more inprovements in his tools and used them well. Also the story was well written.
Great Book This book was pretty good. It is a good book if you want to know survive in the woods. Also it is a good book to see everything you can do with just one hatchet. This is also real good because it is very realistic. I would say that this book could be read by ages ten and up. Also what I thought was cool is that the cover says that it sold over 2,000,000 copies.It probably sold that many copies because it was a real godd book.
This book is about a thirteen year old boy who gets in a plane crash and is stranded in the woods, but he happens to have a hatchet that his mother gave him. Now he has to try to survive until he is rescued. His hatchet is a big help though. If he didn't have his hatchet who knows what's going to happen to him.
Good book We read this with our 9 yr old son. He's advanced for his age and was fine with the content. The affair the mother had is brought up several times, but is not more than "She kissed him in the car. A real kiss". It resulted in the mom and dad's divorce. The suicide attempt comes out of nowhere but is specific to the circumstances and appropriate. The boy in the story is 13 yrs old. Overall the book sparks the imagination of children, and me, to be more prepared with the survival skills our culture has lost. I read the book in two nights. Its an easy read. It is very well written, brings up poignant points about how, if you're stranded in the wild, you must be "one" in the wild. You don't attack everything, and are at the mercy of quite a bit of nature. I think it is appropriate for our children and maybe that will get our kids to be a little more serious about outdoor skills, and not just the jumping, running skills of the game consoles.
An Exciting Survival Story Hatchet is one of Gary Paulsen's finest works. I think his goal was to establish a great young adult novel that is easy to become immersed in. He looks to create a book that is enjoyable and also has a lot of useful information about life in the wilderness. Paulsen, a writer from Minneapolis, writes young adult novels usually about nature. He has written over 200 books, short stories, magazine articles, and plays. He enjoys dog sled racing and has participated in many Iditarod races. Brian Robeson is trapped in the Canadian wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on his back and a hatchet, given to him by his divorced mother before his trip. He crashes from a bush plane after the pilot has a heart attack and the plane runs out of fuel. He is forced to eat whatever he can find, which includes fish, turtle eggs, wild berries, and a few birds. Isolated from any outside help, Brian must find out on his own by making fire by hitting flint with more flint and other survival tactics. Many dangers seem to get in Brian's way as he tries to get by until he can be rescued. Among these dangers, Brian must face a porcupine, a moose, and even a tornado. Will he survive the elements and get rescued or will the wilderness be too much for him to handle? I feel that Gary Paulsen has achieved his goal with flying colors. You could read this book over and over again and still find inspiration from it. Hatchet sparked the mind with exciting conflicts and kept me entertained from cover to cover. I felt that Hatchet has a certain special touch that no other writer could compare. If you are ever stuck in the wilderness, do not look for a survival guide, look for Hatchet. It will teach you more about the wild than most guides out there.
Better than I expected, but still... It was slightly better than I expected, though still pretty uninteresting with large gaps filled with nothing but boredom. (Comparable to Deathly Hallow's camping scenes) However, I did like Gary Paulson's narration style quite a bit, it came off as very natural and conversational. The one thing that bothered me about the narration was the repetition. There were lots of ideas that were repeated for no apparent reason ("He would have to find something to eat. Before he did anything else, he would have to have something to eat." (57)) This is neither realistic nor simplistic, and just ends up annoying the reader tremendously. I also thought that Brian was not a very consistent character, sometimes showing traits of a boy well beyond his age, and sometimes acting like a five year old would. Brian's repetitive TV/movie related realizations were really getting irksome as well. I suppose it's just hard to relate to this book and some of the things Brian had to do to survive simply due to the fact that I've never been placed in such a situation, so it's very hard to relate. I did not like the convenience of the emergency kit at the end, and the fact that there was no resolution about The Secret was probably the most irritating part of all--why mention it in the first place if you won't solve it?
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