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Book Reports On Hatchet By Gary Paulsen

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Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, is an attention grabbing, page turning book. It is about a thirteen year old boy named Brian sharing a tragic, life threatening, exhilarating experience. While flying on a two seater plane to Canada to visit his dad, Brian’s pilot has a heart attack. Brian is forced to crash land the plane in a lake, and survive on his own in the Northern woods of Canada, with nothing but a hatchet.
Hatchet is based off of true events. Paulsen states that these things have happened to him “just in the process of living.” He is representing himself in the form of Brian, the main character. In the book, 54 days before Brian leaves to visit his father, his parents get divorced. Now, Brian not only has to survive on his own in the forest, but he must face the emotional burden of his parents divorce. Hatchet is full of realistic adventure, and is easy to follow along with. The vocabulary Gary Paulsen uses is intermediate, and in my opinion, is …show more content…

Animal attacks, natural disasters, food poisoning, tragedy, the list goes on and on. Paulsen also shows a significant amount of resilience in Brian. After a plane passes by, and Brian fails to capture its attention, he attempts to take his own life with his hatchet. This is a very important moment in the book because Brian becomes a stronger person and bounces back immediately. The fact that he tried to kill himself is one of the reasons why parents challenge the book, for they completely overlook the comeback Brian makes. Parents also challenge Hatchet for things such as description of death, wounds, and violence, and sexual content. In my opinion these challenges are absurd. If a reader cannot handle cuts on a leg, attacks by a skunk, a moose, and a porcupine, and the description of a kiss, then chances are they are easily affected and should know what they should and should not

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