Gary Paulsen is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young readers including three Newbery Honor books: The Winter Room, Hatchet, and Dogsong. Look for Hatchet, The River, Brian’s Return and Brian’s Hunt on audio from Listening Library.
"Paulsen crafts a companion/sequel to Hatchet containing many of
its same pleasures...Read together, the two books make his finest
tale of survival yet."
--Kirkus Review, Pointer
"Paulsen at his best."
--Booklist
"Breathtaking...mesmerizing."
--School Library Journal
First there was Hatchet, Paulsen's classic tale of a boy's survival in the north woods after a plane crash. Then came a sequel, The River, and, last year, Father Water, Mother Woods, a collection of autobiographical essays introduced as the nonfiction counterpart to Hatchet. Now Paulsen backs up and asks readers to imagine that Brian, the hero, hadn't been rescued after all. His many fans will be only too glad to comply, revisiting Brian at the onset of a punishing Canadian winter. The pace never relents-the story begins, as it were, in the middle, with Brian already toughened up and his reflexes primed for crisis. Paulsen serves up one cliffhanger after another (a marauding bear, a charging elk), and always there are the supreme challenges of obtaining food and protection against the cold. Authoritative narration makes it easy for readers to join Brian vicariously as he wields his hatchet to whittle arrows and arrowheads and a lance, hunts game, and devises clothes out of animal skins; while teasers at the ends of chapters keep the tension high (``He would hunt big tomorrow, he thought.... But as it happened he very nearly never hunted again''). The moral of the story: it pays to write your favorite author and ask for another helping. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
"Paulsen crafts a companion/sequel to Hatchet containing many of
its same pleasures...Read together, the two books make his finest
tale of survival yet."
--Kirkus Review, Pointer
"Paulsen at his best."
--Booklist
"Breathtaking...mesmerizing."
--School Library Journal
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