"Thirteen 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 his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother has given him as a present--and the dreadful secrete that has been tearing him apart ever since his parents' 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." (From the back cover).

      It is always helpful to read stories about wilderness survival to fire the imagination. You learn how someone else has dealt with a challenging situation, and it makes you wonder what you would do under similar circumstances. Although Hatchet is a fictional story, it is very well written, and it is clear that author Gary Paulson has spent more than a little time in the outdoors.

      The book does not go into a lot of primitive skills, but rather into the experience of just being out there--being hungry, sunburned, bug-bitten and alone. The most unrealistic part of the book is simply that Brian Robeson is a lot more resourceful than your average thirteen year old. (Most people would die of self-pity before they figured out how to care for themselves.) But back home he went on many pretend wilderness survival adventures with a friend, developing some of the necessary thought patterns he would ultimately depend on to figure out what to do in a difficult situation. That is the usefulness of this book--besides simple entertainment--it helps develop the thought patterns in your own mind, so that you can be more resourceful in a wilderness survival experience. I would have read the book to my kids, but they had already read it in school. Hatchet. Fiction. ISBN: 0-689-80882-8. 1987. 195 pages.

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