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Hatchet | 
 enlarge | Author: Gary Paulsen
Publisher: Aladdin
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $2.48
You Save: $4.51 (65%)
New (39) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $2.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  1162 reviews
Sales Rank: 780
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 1416936475
EAN: 9781416936473
ASIN: 1416936475
Publication Date: December 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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Product Description
ALONEThirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present -- and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent's divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair -- it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive. For twenty years Gary Paulsen's award-winning contemporary classic has been the survival story with which all others are compared. This new edition, with a reading group guide, will introduce a new generation of readers to this page-turning, heart-stopping adventure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1157 more reviews...
 An Exciting Survival Story November 12, 2008
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... November 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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?
Fear Is Not An Option November 6, 2008
I've been on the biggest reading kick of my life here lately and I've been a bit nostalgic as well, so when I decided to re-read some of the books from my grade school years, I chose "Hatchet" first based on its inspirational tale of one lone pre-teen boy's survival.
Brian Robeson is a 13-year old boy on his way to visit his father up north. At the peak of summer, he boards a Cessna 406 in Hampton, NY bound for oil fields in Canada where his father is working as a mechanical engineer. The Cessa carries with it oil drilling cargo but before they can reach their destination, the pilot unexpectedly has a heart attack and dies at the wheel, leaving Brian to land the plane all by himself. Miraculously surviving the crash, he is now faced with trying to survive in the Canadian wildnerness with what little he has in wits and supplies. He will later realize that his mother, despite his anger toward her for his parents' sudden and vicious divorce, saved his life when she gave him a rubber-handled hatchet just before his departure. It would prove to be one of two preeminant tools that kept him alive for a total of fifty-four days before he was rescued.
I can remember reading this book back in elementary school but never really appreciating the story. I am so glad I revisited this tale, for now I truly appreciate the power of the story and the power of Brian's will to survive. During his nearly two-month exile, Brian is subjected to the unmerciful climate, swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitos, dangerous wildlife (moose, black bears) and truly WORKING for his meals. In the process of his survival, he becomes incredibly innovative and learns how to trap swarms of fish at a time for easy meals. He quickly tires of fish and soon moves on to bigger game, figuring out how to trap and kill native grouse through trial and error. Paulsen even has Brian dying a metaphorical death and being reborn, the rigmarole of everyday tasks in order to survive creating in Brian a champion and expert in the hunter-gatherer sense.
Most important was Brian's power of positive thinking, a thing drilled into him from a former English teacher named Perpich. As he assesses everything in his possession that he can use toward things like trapping/hunting and shelter, another mantra from Perpich enters his head, that second of his two tools that would ultimately keep him alive: "You are your most valuable asset. Don't forget that. You are the most valuable thing you have." (pg. 51)
Much of how Brian adapts and excels at his primitive way of life can remind one of the 2000 film "Castaway" in which the marooned Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks) at first clumsily and not without many mistakes learns to survive on his own; by the end he is extremely resourceful, expertly spearing fish, building a raft and making fires with the greatest of ease.
Bottom line: "Hatchet" is a classic coming-of-age tale that teaches perseverence, the power of mind over matter and the irrepressibility of the human spirit. I hope that this book is a part of schools's curriculums for many years to come and I certainly plan to share this story with my children as they come of age.
One of the best I've ever read! October 17, 2008
Of course, like many of the reviewers, I had to read this for school. And it has turned out to be one of my most favorite books of all times! I LOVE this book!
If you do not like wilderness, don't read it
If you do not like very vivid detail and description, don't read it
If you do not like to believe that a child at the age of 13-14 could survive on their own, don't read it.......
I've read almost all of the 1 star reviews and a lot sound like they came from really immature people, or people who don't like really good descriptions of things (ie the repitition in the book)
I for one really appreciated the detail that Gary put into the book. It really makes the story come to life. I went on to read the sequels, and while not QUITE as good, they are still good. I would recommend this to any child that has a very vivid imagination
 Content may be too mature for young readers October 16, 2008
I was pre-reading this book for my 10-year-old who enjoys adventure stories (along the lines of "My Side of the Mountain") and was glad that I did. Some of the content of this book is NOT appropriate for this age -- for example, when the boy recalls the details of witnessing his mother engaged in an adulterous passionate kiss with her lover, which became "the Secret" his father did not know about. I'm not saying it is a bad book for an appropriately aged reader -- but I do want to warn parents looking for an innocent adventure story for their children -- this is not it.
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