Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (cover image from Amazon.com)Bibliography: Paulsen, G. (1987). Hatchet. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN: 978-1416936473
SUMMARY
After his parents' divorce, Brian Robeson is headed toward the Canadian wilderness to visit his father. When the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies, Brian crash lands the single engine plane. Stranded in the woods with nothing but the clothes on his back and a hatchet from his mother, he struggles to survive. He must find food and shelter, defend himself from animals and bugs, learn to make fire, and maintain his determination and courage to stay alive for fifty-four days, even when the chances of rescue grow slimmer as time passes.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Hatchet was phenomenal! I'd never heard of the book, but once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. Initially, it seemed like it was geared toward older readers. Although Brian is only thirteen, he's dealing with the emotionally difficult divorce of his parents. He discovered his mother's affair and knew that she was secretly seeing this other man once a week prior to the divorce. There are also hints that Brian learned that his father is not actually his birth father ("Dad, he thought. Not 'my father.' My Dad.") Brian also seems amazingly mature for a thirteen year old in the face of danger. But much of that maturity could come from the terrifying, heart-wrenching experiences of witnessing someone die in front of him, flying the plane and somehow surviving the crash, and depending on only himself to stay alive.
This book would be perfect for young boys (and girls as well). The action starts immediately--by page two, readers know that in addition to the divorce, something else is going on between Brian and his parents. By page ten, the pilot is having the heart attack. From there, the tension and drama doesn't stop until the last page of the book. It's not all heart-thumping excitement--there are quiet, sad, tender moments when Brian battles fear, loneliness, exhaustion and self-pity. These are even more powerful, to me, then the mosquitoes, the tornado or the moose attack because the battle is inside of Brian's head. He's got to find the will to keep fighting, to figure out solutions with limited resources, to understand his environment and himself well enough to survive. Paulsen creates a believable, compelling character in Brian and sets up a harrowing scenario for his rite of passage to manhood. The text is complex thematically yet simple at the same time. It is ripe with lessons for readers about our place in nature, the fragility of life, the power of hope, and self-reliance. Even though Brian's life isn't something that readers would ever experience, they can still utilize his lessons. He's a memorable character with an inspiring story. (And in the off chance that a reader does survive a plane crash in the woods, they'll know some helpful hints from Brian's mistakes and successes. Hopefully they'll have a hatchet, too.)
1988 Newbery Honor Book
1987 ALA Best Book for Young Adults
1987 ALA Notable Children's Book
1988 Booklist Editors' Choice
1989 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
1991 Georgia Children's Book Awards
1990 Iowa Children's Choice Award and Iowa Teen Award
1990 William Allen White Children's Book Award
1001 Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award
1990 Flicker Tale Children's Book Award
1991 Ohio Buckeye Children's Book Awards
1990 Sequoyah Children and YA Book Awards
1990 Virginia Young Readers Program
1989 Golden Archer Little Archer Award
A Notable Children's Book in the Field of Social Sciences
ACTIVITIES
This book would be a great selection for a discussion in grades 5-8. Questions could include:
1. Were you surprised by any of Brian's decisions or actions after the crash? Would you have thought of similar ways to make a fire, find food or make a shelter?
2. Discuss examples of how Brian was saved by the Hatchet. Did you feel that the hatchet became a character in the book? Do you think that Brian would have survived if he hadn't recovered the hatchet from the bottom of the lake? Why or why not?
3. What were the differences between the Old Brian and the New Brian? How did he change from the beginning of the book to the ending?
4. How long do you think Brian could have survived in the woods if he hadn't found the emergency transmitter?
5. How do you think Brian will handle being back to his "normal" life? Do you think he will treat his mother differently? His father?
6. If you were Brian and lost in the woods, make a list of the five items you would want to have with you to survive.
7. How would you have reacted to the situation in the airplane? Would you have behaved differently than Brian did? If so, how?
View an episode of "Man vs. Wild" TV show or Cast Away with Tom Hanks. Compare and contrast these characters with Brian.
Partner with a local boy scout or girl scout troupe. Discuss safety procedures and strategies for surviving in the woods. Camp at a nearby campsite or national forest.
Present non-fiction materials on plants and animals from the Canadian wilderness. Discuss their eating and hunting habits, life span or characteristics.
Present information on aeronautics. Discuss the history of flight, the development of safety regulations and differences between single engine planes and commercial airlines.
Draw a comic version of this story. Find artistic and dramatic ways to present the plot and characters. For those who don't like to draw, write a brief scene from the viewpoint of another character in the story (Brian's mother or father, the pilot, the moose, the hatchet, etc.).
REVIEWS
From his white-knuckle cockpit experience, he plunges into the intense reality of trying to survive. Fingering the hatchet, he realizes, 'Right now I’m all I’ve got. I have to do something.' What follows is a riveting account of his 54 days in the wilderness; dirty, starving, lonely, weeping self-pitying tears, he finally learns the most important rule of survival—feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t work: 'When he sat alone in the darkness and cried and was done, was all done with it, nothing had changed.' Readers may wince as Paulsen’s drama unfolds: as night blends into gray false dawn, the grip of the pacing never falters. Brian learns that while smiling at the humor of a funny mistake, he could find himself looking at death; learns that the driving influence in nature is to eat; learns to be full of tough hope. After a tornado ravages his campsite—destroying every fragment of his microcosm of civilization—he’s back to square one, with nothing left but the hatchet and what he learned about himself. Classic action-adventure fiction."
From BooklistOnline
"Since it was first published in 1987, the story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson's survival following a plane crash has become a modern classic."
Bowker's Books in Print
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