Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

I love survival stories. They amaze me. With a brother and dad who love reading about survival situations and trying out the things they learned, books of that type are often on our family read aloud list.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is one of my favorites. It is realistic, easy to read, and a page turner. 

Brian, the main character, is a city boy who is faced with an unexpected challenge. He must beat the odds and survive. After his parents divorce, Brian spends the school year with his mom, summers with his dad. Flying to northern Canada to be with his dad the pilot suffers a severe heart attack and the plane does down. Stranded Brian must survive. He has no food, no shelter, and no way of getting help, all he has is the hatchet his mother gave him.

Hatchet is very well written. The characters are realistic. The setting clear. Paulsen does a good job of giving detail without drowning you with it and dragging the story. There was not a singe time I had a thought of "Get on with the story!" (Which happens a lot to me... I like something to always be going on in a story)

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it for all ages!

*I will note that the reason Brian's parents are divorced is that his mom was having an affair with another man.  Brain recalls seeing her kiss the man. Brian's father never knows. The affair doesn't go into much detail.