Hatchet

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. 1987. 192p. Available both at FIC PAU on the library shelves and as an audiobook from on Overdrive.

Brian is thirteen years old, and his parents got a divorce, and his father moved out to work in the oil industry in northern Canada. With school over, Brian, who lives with his mother, is flying from New York to spend the summer there with him.

Unfortunately, the pilot of the bush plane suffers a heart attack midway through the flight and dies, leaving Brian alone in the flying plane. Brian tries to communicate using the radio, but he is unable to give a flight number or a heading. Worse, during the pilot’s convulsions, the plane was jerked off-course, and now no one will know where it is. Brian remains on the plane until it crashes three long hours later, in the middle of a lake in the middle of nowhere.

When Brian regains consciousness, he finds himself on the lake’s shore. The plane has sunk, and all he has left with him are his torn clothes and the hatchet his mother gave him just before the trip.

What comes next is an amazing story of survival in the northern woods of Canada. Brian must quickly learn how to find food and shelter, how to build fire, and how to avoid the predators and mosquitoes that haunt the woods. Will his knowledge of nature programs be enough for this city boy to survive?

If you enjoyed this book, you will like The Perfect Storm, Into the Wild, and Lost in the Pacific, 1942. All are incredibly true stories of survival. For more survival fiction, take a look at Ice Dogs or Be Not Far From Me. Brian's story continues in The River. If you wondered what would have happened if Brian had not been rescued at the end of the summer, take a look at Brian's Winter.