HATCHET

by GARY PAULSEN

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New softcover book, published 2005, 154 pages.

There was a wild crashing sound, a ripping of metal, and the plane blew through the trees, out over the water and down, down to slam into the lake ...Brian Robeson is a city boy. Not used to living rough. Until his plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. All he has is a hatchet - and a desperate will to survive. Now Brian must learn to live the hard way - or die.

Brian Robeson is stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness after the pilot of the single-engine Cessna 206 Stationair plane in which he is traveling suffers a fatal heart attack. Brian is forced to try to land the plane, but ends up crash-landing the plane into a lake. He just manages to escape as the plane sinks into the remote lake.

Brian figures out how to make fire. He forces himself to eat whatever food he can find, such as turtle eggs, fish, berries, fruit, some rabbits, and even a couple of birds. He deals with a porcupine, bear, skunk, moose, and a tornado. He eventually becomes quite a craftsman, crafting a bow, arrows, and a spear. He also fashions a shelter out of the underside of a rock overhang. During the story, he struggles with memories of home, and the bittersweet memory of his mother, who Brian has discovered was cheating on his father.

When a tornado hits the woods and lake, it draws the plane wreckage toward the top of the lake. Brian makes a raft from a few broken off tree tops to get to the plane. When Brian is working his way into the plane, he drops his hatchet in the water. He realizes how critical the hatchet is for his survival. After diving twice, he retrieves the hatchet and narrowly avoids drowning. Inside the plane, he finds a survival pack, which has an emergency transmitter, many packs of food, a first aid kit, a pot, and .22 survival rifle (likely an AR-7 ). Brian activates the transmitter, but not knowing how to work it, he thinks it is broken. As he is eating the food packs, a fur buyer arrives in a float plane some time after because he caught the transmitter's signal. Finally, after reaching his father, he is no closer to being able to tell him about the mother's affair than at the novel's beginning.

About the author

Gary Paulsen (born May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American writer, who writes many young adult coming of age stories about the wilderness. He is the author of more than 200 books, 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for young adults and teens.

Paulsen was raised by his parents and later lived with his grandmother and aunts. At the age of 14 he had run away from home to join a carnival. Paulsen used his work as a magazine proofreader to learn the craft of writing. In 1966, his first book was published under the title The Special War. Using his varied life experiences, especially those of an outdoorsman (a hunter, trapper, and two-time competitor in the 1,850 km Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race), Paulsen writes about what he knows best. Much of his work features the outdoors and highlights the importance of nature. He often uses "coming of age" themes in his novels, where a character masters the art of survival in isolation as a rite of passage to manhood and maturity. He is critical of technology and has been called a Luddite.

Some of Paulsen's most well-known books are the Hatchet series, although he has published many other popular novels including Dogsong, Harris and Me, and The Winter Room, which won the Newbery Honor. Woodsong and Winterdance are among the most popular books about the Iditarod.
Paulsen competed in the 1983 and 1985 Iditarods. In 1990 he gave up dog sledding because of angina, which he has described as the most difficult decision he has ever made. After more than a decade spent sailing all over the Pacific, Paulsen got back into dog sledding in 2003. In 2005, he was scheduled to compete in the 2005 Iditarod after a 20-year absence, but withdrew shortly before the start of the race. He participated in the 2006 Iditarod, but scratched after two days.

Paulsen lives in La Luz, New Mexico with his wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen, an artist who has illustrated several of his books. He also maintains a 40-acre property north of Willow, Alaska where he breeds and trains sled dogs for the Iditarod.

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Hatchet by Gary Paulsen