Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Reviewed by Andrew S.

Have you ever gone camping before? You might have gone to a campsite. But Brian Robeson crashes into the wilderness with barely any food or tools needed to survive.

In Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, Brian is heading to visit his father on a plane following his parents’ divorce. His pilot, however, has a heart attack. Desperate, Brian finds the radio transmitter and attempts to contact help to land the plane safely, but the signal is lost. He lands in the wilderness with only a hatchet to defend himself. As he slowly acquires survival skills, such as starting a fire, he also obtains the motivation to continue, even after a search plane passes him and a tornado sweeps the area. Nonetheless, Brian wonders if he will ever be saved.

One reason I thoroughly enjoyed this book is because of the ways in which Brian motivates himself. One method he uses is giving himself things to do. One trick is, “a mental thing… and when he was busy and had something to do the depression seemed to leave.” No matter if it is collecting firewood, or making a spear to hunt fish, Brian assigns himself tasks, keeping himself occupied.

A second intriguing part of this story is the description of how Brian creates his tools from scratch. To make the arrows for his bow, he uses, “willow, straight and with the bark peeled” and hardens the point of the arrow using fire. Not only does the description let the reader picture it inside of their head, but it also shows how truly resourceful and hard-working Brian is.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this book 9.5/10 because I think that there should be more description on Brian’s emotions. Otherwise, it is a page-turning novel that all adventure book readers (and adventurers) should read. Hatchet is the first book in the Brian’s Saga series, and there are four other books. I have not read the rest of the series, but they seem compelling, as well! Go ahead and check out the series at your local library.

Simon & Schuster, 190 pages