book review of hatchet

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Common sense media reviewers.

Hold on tight for an intense tale of survival.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Accurate depiction of the necessities of survival

Nature can be unforgiving. Extreme challenges can

Brian starts out stubborn with a bad attitude, but

A plane crash in the Canadian wilderness triggers

Mention that the main character's mother had an af

Parents need to know that Gary Paulsen's Hatchet is an intense, fast, exciting read. The main character is a 13-year-old boy whose parents are divorced. He survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness en route to visit his father and must use the hatchet his mother once gave him to stay alive. Many kids…

Educational Value

Accurate depiction of the necessities of survival in the wilderness.

Positive Messages

Nature can be unforgiving. Extreme challenges can inspire deep wells of courage, strength, resilience and inner growth.

Positive Role Models

Brian starts out stubborn with a bad attitude, but he is forced to be brave, hardworking and careful to survive. The story charts his personal growth in the face of an incredible challenge -- to survive.

Violence & Scariness

A plane crash in the Canadian wilderness triggers the survival story. Main character Brian kills various wild animals in order to feed and defend himself. Brian's life is constantly at risk. Readers are held in suspense by his fight to survive. Story touches on attempted suicide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Mention that the main character's mother had an affair with another man, causing his parent's divorce.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Gary Paulsen 's Hatchet is an intense, fast, exciting read. The main character is a 13-year-old boy whose parents are divorced. He survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness en route to visit his father and must use the hatchet his mother once gave him to stay alive. Many kids report that this is the first school-assigned book they fell in love with.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (47)
• Kids say (130)

Based on 47 parent reviews

Hatchet - A good survival book for 10+

Age range not appropriate, what's the story.

A city boy is stranded in the Canadian wilderness, equipped with nothing but a hatchet and the clothes on his back. Readers get a riveting view of Brian's struggle to survive for the next two months, forever changing his attitude toward 20-century civilization.

Is It Any Good?

Muscular prose, plus an accurate depiction of the necessities of survival from an author who has lived the details, makes this a riveting, intelligent read. HATCHET has won dozens of awards and appears on many summer-reading lists -- and for good reason. In the end, the book is a fascinating thrill that will keep readers mesmerized to the last page.

Gary Paulsen does not romanticize the difficulties Brian faces. Readers witness his gut-wrenching sickness from eating too many berries and his shock when he realizes he has never before heard total silence. His failures and triumphs are also presented as equal parts of one life-altering experience. In the two months he spends in the wild, Brian undergoes countless emotional and physical changes. But Paulsen keeps the reader at Brian's side as he discovers how strong he has always been.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Brian's failures and triumphs and how they change his attitude and viewpoint.

Do you think you could survive if you were in the same situation?

Is there anything Brian did that you might have done differently?

What was the most terrifying part of his experience, in your opinion?

Book Details

• Author : Gary Paulsen
• Genre : Adventure
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Simon & Schuster
• Publication date : January 1, 1987
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
• Number of pages : 195
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : October 5, 2018

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by Gary Paulsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1987

A prototypical survival story: after an airplane crash, a 13-year-old city boy spends two months alone in the Canadian wilderness. In transit between his divorcing parents, Brian is the plane's only passenger. After casually showing him how to steer, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. In a breathtaking sequence, Brian maneuvers the plane for hours while he tries to think what to do, at last crashing as gently and levelly as he can manage into a lake. The plane sinks; all he has left is a hatchet, attached to his belt. His injuries prove painful but not fundamental. In time, he builds a shelter, experiments with berries, finds turtle eggs, starts a fire, makes a bow and arrow to catch fish and birds, and makes peace with the larger wildlife. He also battles despair and emerges more patient, prepared to learn from his mistakes—when a rogue moose attacks him and a fierce storm reminds him of his mortality, he's prepared to make repairs with philosophical persistence. His mixed feelings surprise him when the plane finally surfaces so that he can retrieve the survival pack; and then he's rescued. Plausible, taut, this is a spellbinding account. Paulsen's staccato, repetitive style conveys Brian's stress; his combination of third-person narrative with Brian's interior monologue pulls the reader into the story. Brian's angst over a terrible secret—he's seen his mother with another man—is undeveloped and doesn't contribute much, except as one item from his previous life that he sees in better perspective, as a result of his experience. High interest, not hard to read. A winner.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987

ISBN: 1416925082

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bradbury

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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More by Gary Paulsen

BOOK REVIEW

by Gary Paulsen

IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

More by Laura Nowlin

by Laura Nowlin

INDIVISIBLE

by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021

An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.

A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.

Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

More by Daniel Aleman

by Daniel Aleman

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Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen | Book Review

Book Review of  Hatchet The Children’s Book Review

Written by Gary Paulsen

Ages 9+ | 192 Pages

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (1986) | ISBN-13: 9781416925088

What to Expect: Survival, Adventure, Realistic Fiction, and Nature

Gary Paulsen (1939-2021) was a prolific author with a long list of accomplishments. He wrote over 200 books, which both adults and children have enjoyed. It is an incredible feat that he received an estimated 200-400 letters daily from fans; this doesn’t even include electronic communication.

One of his most notable books is Hatchet —a Newbery Honor. It stands alone as the preferred first installment in a novel series. Hatchet is the ultimate survival story and the first in the series of five books. One of the things that sets Hatchet apart is that no prerequisite sequence is required for the other stories.

In this exciting, gritty, and action-packed adventure, Brian’s thirteen-year-old self encounters dire circumstances following a harrowing plane crash in The Northern wilderness of Canada. Using only his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and a hatchet his mom gave him before boarding the plane, Brian creates shelter, hunts for food with his tools, and devises a plan to improve his chances of rescue. With so much alone time on his hands, he also has plenty of time to think about the family secret that led to his parent’s divorce, but self-pity is useless in the wilderness. 

Paulsen drew inspiration from his personal experience to create this wilderness survival narrative. This experience involved two forced crash landings and living off the wilds of Canada while hunting with a bow.

Hatchet is a gripping adventure and an unforgettable story of survival and determination and challenges readers to imagine their strengths, adaptability, and determination in unprecedented situations.

Buy the Book

About the author.

Gary Paulsen (1931–2021) was one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers, author of three Newbery Honor titles,  Dogsong ,  Hatchet , and  The Winter Room . He wrote over 100 books for adults and young readers. 

What to Read Next if You Love Hatchet

• Brian’s Winter , by Gary Paulsen
• Robinson Crusoe , by Daniel Defoe
• Holes , by Louis Sachar
• Where the Red Fern Grows , by Wilson Rowls

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Hatchet . Discover more books like  Hatchet  by reading our reviews and articles tagged with adventure , reality fiction , and nature .

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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Book Review

• Gary Paulsen
• Adventure , Coming-of-Age , Drama

Readability Age Range

• Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
• Newberry Award Honor, 1988; Massachusetts Children’s Book Award, 1995; many others

Year Published

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine . It is one of several books written about the character Brian Robeson. It was originally written as a stand-alone novel, but since then Gary Paulsen has written several sequels and an alternate ending.

Plot Summary

Only a month after his parents’ divorce is final, 13-year-old Brian Robeson is strapped into the copilot’s seat of a single-engine Cessna on his way to spend the summer with his father in the oil fields of northern Canada. On his belt, he has a hatchet, a gift from his mother. The pilot shows Brian how to steer the plane but then lapses into silence. When the pilot starts complaining of pain in his left shoulder and chest, Brian realizes he is having a heart attack. The pilot, now wrenched in uncontrollable spasms, moves to one side of the plane and collapses, unconscious. Brian continues to fly the plane as level as possible, attempting unsuccessfully to make radio contact, until the plane runs out of gas and the engine sputters and dies. He crash-lands in a wilderness lake, claws his way through the broken windshield of the sinking plane and swims ashore.

Despite scrapes and bruises, hordes of mosquitoes and his hunger, Brian can’t stop thinking about the secret only he knows: His mother left his father because she was having an affair with another man. He remembers seeing them kissing in a station wagon while he was biking by the mall. Brian also realizes that because he flew the plane for hours, it may have crashed hundreds of miles from its charted course. He might not be found for a long time.

Fighting despair, self-pity and visions of hamburgers, Brian gorges himself on chokecherries and finds shelter in a shallow cave near the lake’s edge. He is violently ill in the night and resolves never to overindulge again. The following night, a porcupine stumbles into the cave. Brian kicks it and throws the hatchet, which hits the cave wall in a shower of sparks. The porcupine shuffles off, and Brian is left to pull quills out of his calf.

The next day, spurred by a dream in which his friend and father both tell him to make fire, Brian builds a campfire by using the blunt edge of the hatchet to create sparks, which he catches in a nest of birch bark and fans into flame. The fire keeps away the mosquitoes. He reaps the benefits of another windfall when a snapping turtle lays eggs on the beach. He eats a few raw, and then buries the rest inside his shelter. He begins to work on a spear and bow to catch fish, but when a plane passes in the distance without seeing him, Brian loses all hope and tries to commit suicide by cutting his wrists with the hatchet. He fails, but when he wakes up the next morning and sees the smears of dried blood on his wrists, he feels like he is a new person, stronger than the old Brian.

He becomes more at home in the natural world. He catches fish with ease. He doesn’t fear the wolves or the bears that share the forest with him. But one night, a skunk enters the cave as he sleeps, sprays him and eats his turtle eggs. Brian reinforces his shelter by weaving branches together to form a wall in front of the cave. He also builds a shelf to store food safely and uses rocks to section off a portion of the lake as a living larder. When he tires of fish, Brian learns how to kill birds and rabbits for food.

One morning, Brian kills a bird and is washing his hands in the lake when he is charged from behind by a female moose that grinds him into the mud on the bottom of the lake using her head and hooves. He barely escapes and goes back to the cave to rest and nurse his injured ribs. When he wakes up, Brian hears a far-off roar, a sound he doesn’t recognize until it is too late. A tornado passes directly above his shelter, ripping off the front wall, scattering his handmade tools and sending hot coals into his clothing. Only the hatchet, still clipped to his belt, remains.

Morning reveals a more promising aspect of the tornado’s impact: It churned up the water and changed the position of the plane so the tail sticks out above the surface of the water. Brian rebuilds his camp, then begins work on a raft that will hold the weight of the survival pack he knows is stored in the plane. Pushing the raft in front of him, Brian swims out to the plane. He ties the raft to the tail of the plane with a makeshift rope made of strips of cloth cut from his windbreaker. There are no visible openings, so Brian cuts open the aluminum shell with his hatchet, and wriggles inside. He has to dive for the survival pack, which is jammed against the front seats. When he finally succeeds in tearing it loose, he is about to swim to the surface when he sees the pilot’s head, now almost a skull, in the water. Brian vomits and barely makes it to the surface.

Back at his shelter, Brian unpacks the contents of the bag. Among other supplies, he finds food, a gun and an emergency transmitter that appears to have been ruined in the crash. He decides to celebrate and begins rehydrating a freeze-dried meal and cooking it over the fire, which he lights using a butane lighter from the pack. Just as the meal is ready, a small plane lands on the lake and glides across the water to the beach where Brian is sitting in front of his shelter. The pilot explains that he received the signal from the emergency transmitter that Brian had inadvertently left on.

In a brief epilogue, Brian’s parents do not get back together, but Brian is forever changed by his experiences at the lake. He never tells his father why his mother wanted the divorce.

Christian Beliefs

Other belief systems.

Brian feels that his circumstances depend on luck (or the lack thereof) and that he can only depend on himself. After the moose charges him and the tornado destroys everything he has worked to build, Brian feels that a giant coin has been flipped and he is the loser.

Brian wants to say something in honor of the dead pilot, but he can’t think of any religious words.

Authority Roles

Brian’s mother divorces his father because she is secretly seeing another man. She continues to behave tenderly toward Brian but never tells Brian or her husband the true reason for ending her marriage. Brian feels hatred toward her but doesn’t confront her or tell his father about the affair. Brian also hates lawyers and judges because of their roles in the divorce.

Brian is motivated to action by remembering his English teacher, Mr. Perpich, who told his students that the most valuable asset they have is themselves.

Profanity & Violence

God’s name is misused several times. There is one use of d–n . Brian crash-lands in a wilderness lake, claws his way through the broken windshield of the sinking plane and swims ashore. When a plane passes in the distance without seeing him, Brian loses all hope and tries to commit suicide by cutting his wrists with the hatchet. One morning, Brian kills a bird and is washing his hands in the lake when he is charged from behind by a female moose that grinds him into the mud on the bottom of the lake using her head and hooves. He barely escapes. A tornado passes directly above his shelter, ripping off the front wall, scattering his handmade tools and sending hot coals into his clothing. Brian sees the pilot’s head when it’s a skull in the water.

Sexual Content

Brian remembers seeing his mother passionately kiss a blond man when they were in a station wagon.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Book Reviews , Paulsen, Gary May 19, 2016

I first read Gary Paulsen’s survival novel Hatchet back in fifth grade, I think, when we were starting out our real chapter book reading and discovering who we were ourselves. In the short novel, Brian became relateable for us young readers, and Paulsen succeeded in keeping our attention.

Paulsen’s book focuses around Brian, a young man who is flying to visit his father in Canada when the pilot has a heart attack and the plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. Thus, Brian, a city boy, must figure out how to survive on his own with very little knowledge and a hatchet as his only tool.

I’ve always loved this book. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a survival story, and I read it for the first time when I was at an age where I wished I was older and could experience something like that, or if it was just because I enjoyed the adventure of it all.

Paulsen is a brilliant writer who looks at real-world scenarios and turns them into fiction for the masses. He knows how to relate to kids and bring about his own history within the text.

However, my only complaint about this, which is similar to anyone else’s, is it wasn’t long enough. There was plenty of action, but it felt like Brian got off a little easy when he managed to get home so quickly, and before the real trouble began.

But, I’m glad Paulsen continued the story. A young man who goes into the wilderness is changed, and by bringing that character back and continuing his story with four other books was the perfect way to show just how much Brian has grown.

This is definitely a book for all ages. It may be written for the younger demographic, but the adventure, the sorrow and the beauty of nature are all things anyone can experience or wish to experience. Paulsen’s novels need to be read, and they can be in a short amount of time. They’re worth devouring.

For other novels written by Paulsen, including The Rifle , the entirety of Brian’s Saga , Dogsong and more, visit Barnes and Noble online or in stores, or other sites such as Amazon.com.

Tags: Adventure , Barnes and Noble , Beauty , Book , Brian , Brian Robeson , Brian's Saga , Canada , Chapter , Character , Demographic , Dogsong , Fiction , Fifth grade , Gary Paulsen , Hatchet , Heart attack , History , Nature , Novel , Pilot , Simon and Schuster , Sorrow , Survival , The Rifle , Wilderness , Writer , Young Adult

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Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Brian Robeson, aged 13, thinks it’s tough having divorced parents. He thinks it’s tough having to fly from New York to northern Canada to visit his father over the summer. He doesn’t find out what  tough  is until the pilot of a single-engine Cessna dies of a heart attack right beside him. Brian finds himself alone at 70,000 feet, with no idea where he is and no one on the radio to help him land the plane.

Considering that he lives through the crash, I suppose he does all right. But then he has to keep on living. With nothing but the clothes on his back and a hatchet his mother had given him as a parting gift, he has to scratch a living out of the Canadian wilderness. That’s when he finds out what tough is. He is.

This is the story of Brian’s fifty-four-day ordeal. Aided by nothing but a hatchet and the will to survive, even after he knows the search for him has been called off, he holds off starvation. He survives encounters with bears, a porcupine, a skunk, a wolf, and (most terrifying of all) a moose. He learns to make fire, shelter, and weapons so that he can hunt and fish. He makes mistakes that nearly cost him his life. He becomes attuned to the sounds, smells, and visual details around him: a human survival machine.

And then the tornado sweeps through his camp and gives him one, final opportunity to choose between life and death. The outcome is so surprising that it may seem abrupt. Just when it looked like an interesting new chapter might be opening for Brian, the story ends in a way that, evidently, many of the book’s original fans didn’t like. Though it received a Newbery Honor in 1988, and already had a sequel ( The River ), the book’s fans prevailed on its author to provide an alternate ending. This, in turn, led to three other sequels ( Brian’s Winter, Brian’s Return  and  Brian’s Hunt ), which are now considered “canonical.” It’s an interesting, and perhaps unique, case of a single book splitting off into two separate series with mutually contradictory storylines.

Gary Paulsen  is an interesting character. Besides writing an astounding number of books, he has also competed in the Iditarod dogsled race, survived in the wilderness, and experienced everything – literally everything – that Brian lives through in this book. His books in general will appeal to the type of reader who enjoys coming-of-age stories and the idea of living in the wild, without the aid of modern technology. Up-and-coming fantasy writers should probably read every one of his titles, to give their camping and hunting scenes a ring of authenticity. Any would-be writer, in fact, and lovers of good writing, should take note of this book and its author’s uniquely gripping, dramatic, often downright poetic style.

Recommended Age: 12+

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Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Thirteen-year-old Brian was the only passenger on a flight into the Canadian wilderness on a small bush plane, when the pilot suffers a fatal heart attack.  Brian manages to crash-land the plane on a lake and scramble out of the wreckage with no serious injuries.  But he’s far off of the original flight plan, rescue is uncertain, and he has no resources but what he’s wearing–including a hatchet hanging on his belt.  With courage and ingenuity, Brian learns to survive in the wilderness.

I find this book hits a nice balance between focus on character and details of wilderness survival.  Except for the very beginning and (spoiler…) the very end, Brian is the only character.  The book remains always centered on him, and whatever else happens or whatever he does, it all hinges around how it affects Brian, or how it’s an outgrowth of his character.

There’s quite a lot of minute detail when Brian realizes that his hatchet of the title can be used to create fire (striking sparks into flammable material, to put it very basically).  And yet, this detail worked better for me better than similar detail did in Little House in the Big Woods .  It’s all about how Brian comes up with new ideas or deals with setbacks, and then there’s also the tension of whether he’ll be successful (unlike in “To Build a Fire,” I actually cared about this character).  I also loved the primeval element, the way the ability to build fire changes everything for Brian’s survival.

There’s also a nice balance of fear and strength in Brian’s handling of the situation.  He’s scared and alone and if he had handled it all calmly I wouldn’t have believed it at all.  There’s even a moment where he contemplates killing himself because he just can’t face it all–but obviously he keeps going, and the book is overall much more hopeful than it is grim.

I don’t know enough about wilderness survival to know how accurate Paulsen’s details are, but it all felt reasonable enough.  And somewhere (maybe the last time I read this) I read an essay or author’s note discussing Paulsen’s own wilderness experience.  He said he’d tried everything in the book himself, except for using a hatchet to make fire.  So to make sure it was possible, he spent a few hours in his backyard with a hatchet until he had fire (and his wife thought he must be crazy…)

This book was written for readers around Brian’s age, but as an adult reader I still found it very engaging (and a very fast read!)  It doesn’t make me want to go live in the wilderness, but it did make me think about some of the lessons of independence and courage that Brian learned.  Highly recommended!

Other reviews: Rhapsody in Books Paper Breathers Evergreen Library Anyone else?

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One thought on “ Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen ”

This sounds like an interesting read, and not as scary or depressing as a story like this could be. It takes some talent to make an engaging story with only one character.

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Book Review: Hatchet

The award winning book by Gary Paulsen, Hatchet, is about a boy named Brian whose parents are divorced. Right before, Brian gets on the plane that would take him to his Dad’s house, his mother gives him a hatchet. While flying over the 1000s of miles of forests in Canada, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian is forced to fly the plane into a lake in the middle of the forest. Somehow he survives the crash, but now he is stranded in the wilderness. He must survive against the harshness of nature with only his mind and the hatchet to help him.

The realistic scenarios make the reader feel like they are trapped in the forest with Brian. It was interesting to think about what would have happened if he did not have the hatchet with him and the reader wonders what they would do in Brian’s place. Would they be able to survive until help came and make life or death decisions?

Hatchet is actually the original book in what Paulsen turned into a five book series. I would recommend reading the whole series, it really deepens the view of the story. My personal favorite is the second book, Brian’s Winter, but the entire story is definitely worth reading. 8th Grade.

A Journey of Words

Book review: hatchet, hatchet brian’s saga #1 by gary paulsen, my rating: 4 / 5 genre: classic middle grade adventure.

I remember reading the story of teenage Brian stuck alone in the wilderness for several weeks when I was a kid, though the only parts of it I could recall were that the plane went down into water and that at some point he dove into the water to try to salvage supplies from the plane. When I read it again recently because my daughter read it for school, I remembered a lot more of the challenges Brian faces. The reader easily roots for Brian to solve the next problem, to overcome the next hurdle. He has setbacks and moments where he contemplates giving up, which make the story all the more realistic. On top of it all, he’s reeling from a divorce caused by a horrible Secret that he’s kept buried, and while his dangerous situation tends to overtake that trauma, it’s always there, waiting to creep in during his weakest moments. Overall, the story is engaging, and when a potential major issue happens near the end of the book, I found myself groaning and shaking my head for poor Brian.

My only gripe with the book is the author’s style, which involves a lot of repetition within sentences and paragraphs. Though some might be seen as showing Brian’s mental state, it started before the plane even went down, so I think it’s purely a style choice, and one that I don’t personally care for. Otherwise, though, I think this book is still great for pre-teens and teens to read, maybe with parents for pre-teens.

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3 thoughts on “ book review: hatchet ”.

That was such a good book I remember reading it in school as a kid. Brings back some memories

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It did for me as well! I mostly remember thinking that I would never have survived one night, much less the nearly 2 months Brian did.

Before my accident I wanted to live like that in real life. Just for fun. Go stake out a place in Alaska or something crazy.

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By Gary Paulsen

‘Hatchet’ tells the story of a thirteen-year old boy trapped in the wilderness and doing all he can to survive.

About the Book

Article written by Chioma Julie

Degree in M.C.M. Awarded Best Graduating Student in Literature-in-English at UNISEC.

Gary Paulsen’s sense of adventure was a major contributor to this 1986 coming-of-age fiction.

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, on his way to visit his father as a routine, encounters something that would go on to change him significantly. The pilot flying him to Canada dies on the plane. It’s all left to him to control. His fate in his hands, he crash-lands in the wilderness. There, he stays surviving for fifty-four days, losing a lot of body weight; learning a lot about nature, about living, and about survival.

Before the crash, Brian was just a boy who couldn’t even handle his bicycle well. But in that wilderness, he finds himself building things, making changes, changing, and calling the shots. In there, he’s all he’s got.

The wilderness is mostly beautiful, but towards the beginning of his stay there, the unpleasantness or inconveniences makes him miss home. That feeling almost belittles his parents’ broken marriage, and yes, the secret.

Key Facts about  The Stranger

• Title: Hatchet
• Author’s Name : Gary Paulsen
• Date of Publication : November 1, 1986
• Literary Period : Contemporary Times.
• Genre : Young adult adventure, fiction, and coming-of-age story.
• Protagonist : Brian Robeson
• Climax : When the pilot dies, Brian is left to control the plane himself.
• Point of View : Third-person
• Style of Writing/Diction/Structure : Simple sentence structure, simple vocabulary—a very simple structure generally. The book is in prose form and has 19 chapters, consisting of 195 pages of hard copy.
• Setting : Most of the events in ‘ Hatchet ’ take place in a forest (wilderness) presumed to be in Canada.

Gary Paulsen and Hatchet

Gary Paulsen was an American writer known mostly for writing children’s and young adult fiction and coming-of-age stories. He had a career in writing spanning fifty-five years. In those years, he wrote over 200 books, 200 hundred magazine articles; short stories, and several plays. It is also worth mentioning that he was a poet. ‘ Dogteam ’ is one of his poems.

Gary Paulsen’s experiences growing up unsurprisingly shaped him a lot. Most of his books were inspired by his experiences. ‘ Hatchet ’ is one of them. Not all of it, just the part about adventure (which is most of it anyway). At the age of 14, he ran away from home. His sense of adventure spiraled from then on.

His parent’s marriage was not particularly successful. For the most part, he and his mother lived apart from his father. Even though at some point, they went to the Philippines to live with him, they lived separately most of the time. In his autobiography, he mentions his mother’s affair with a certain corpsman, someone they met on board a ship. Gary and his mum, traveling, witness a plane crash that claims lives. The corpsman with the help of Gary Paulsen’s mum takes care of the survivors. It is the corpsman she later starts having an affair with.

He also described his parents as mostly absent; he had to wing it on his own and was between jobs. Gary wasn’t particularly a bright student, but he had an interest in reading and knowing. He developed an interest in reading after a librarian gave him a book to read.

Brian Robeson, the main character from ‘ Hatchet ,’ has a lot in common with the person described here. Brian comes from a broken home, and in the wilderness, he fully taps into his sense of adventure. His quest for knowledge helps him a lot on his mission to survive in the wilderness.

Gary Paulsen’s Other Books

Gary Paulsen has over 200 books to his name . Some of them are:

‘ Woodsong ’ (1990) is a book of memoirs; ‘ Lawn Boy ’ (2007) tells the story of a twelve-year-old who decides to work on the lawnmower his grandfather gave him; ‘ Woods Runner ’ (2010) focuses on a thirteen-year-old boy who spends his days hunting for food for his family; ‘ Soldier’s Heart ’ (1998) is a war story as seen from the eyes of Charley Goddard, a sixteen-year-old; ‘ Northwind ’ (2001) is a coming-of-age story about an orphan, Leif, who goes through a lot trying to survive and is shaped by the harsh experiences he has; ‘ Harris and Me ’ (1993) pays attention to the interesting summer experience had by two young boys; ‘ The Winter Room ’ (1989) tells the story of eleven-year-old Eldon and his family, living on a farm; ‘ Liar, Liar: The Theory, Practice and Disruptive Properties of Deception ’ (2011) is the story of fourteen-year-old Kevin Spencer who is a chronic liar; ‘ The Island ’ (1988) tells the story of fifteen-year-old Wil Neuton and a very important summer in his life; ‘ Dancing Carl ’ (1983) is a story with lessons about living and loving, and ‘ Cookcamp ’ (1991) tells the stoty of a five-year-old sent to live with his grandmother in a cookcamp one summer.

Most of Gary Paulsen’s books are masterpieces . He won the Newberry Award three times. ‘ Hatchet ’ is arguably his most popular.

Books Related to Hatchet

‘ My Side of the Mountain ’ (1959) by Jean Craighead George tells the story of a boy, Sam Gribley who leaves life in the city and goes to the Catskill mountain to set up a home, ‘ The Bridge Home ’ (2019) by Padma Venkataraman which tells the story of strong-willed homeless children who come together to survive the harshness in the streets of Chennai, India and ‘ Ice Dogs ’ (2012) by Terry Lyn Johnson. This one tells the story of an Alaskan dog racer who finds herself lost in a desert where she encounters a peculiar character.

The Lasting Impact of Hatchet

The story of ‘ Hatchet ’ would keep you on your toes, thrilled till the very last line. And by the last line, I mean the last line of the epilogue. That is how good it is. The protagonist’s life is changed forever. However, even though the reader would not feel his experiences with the same intensity as him, ‘ Hatchet ’ is very capable of changing someone for the better. It would help the reader ignore what is not important. Brian Robeson after his collective experience in the desert, goes into the ‘normal’ world, more sensitive, more thoughtful, and more appreciative. I don’t see any less for the reader. ‘ Hatchet ’ is an ageless adventure story.

Hatchet Review ⭐

‘Hatchet’ by Gary Paulsen is a coming-of-age story about a thirteen-year-old old boy who, against all odds tries to survive the harshness of the wilderness, after he crash-lands in it.

Hatchet Historical Context 📖

‘Hatchet’ is a well-crafted adventure story, and there is nothing as timeless as a well-crafted adventure story.

Hatchet Quotes 💬

‘Hatchet’ is an ageless piece of art. Is is a story of hope, perseverance and the determination to survive.

Hatchet Characters 📖

Gary Paulsen carefully built the characters in ‘Hatchet.’ This is evident in how each character is allowed to develop naturally.

Hatchet Themes and Analysis 📖

‘Hatchet’ is a highly thought-provoking coming-of-age story that explores the themes of hope, nature, and survival.

Hatchet Summary 📖

Gary Paulsen’s ‘Hatchet’ tells the story of Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old boy still finding it hard to believe his parents have become estranged, now thrown into another turbulence when he crash-lands in a wilderness.

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Hatchet by gary paulsen.

Gary Paulsen’s classic survival novel Hatchet offers a realistic–as opposed to romantic– view of nature and what it takes to survive in the wild.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.  Simon & Shuster, 1987 (paperback re-issue 2006). 192 pages

Reading Level : Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for : Ages 12-15 and up (especially boys)

In a culture where childhood is primarily a matter of motoring from one controlled environment to another, we could all use a little wilderness.  At the same time, Christians believe that humans are created separately from the rest of the natural world and the Fall opened a rift that’s widened ever since.  Even the most enthusiastic backpacker doesn’t disappear into the back country without the latest gear and satellite communication.  (See Into the Wild or Grizzly Man for examples of young men who presumed too much on nature’s kindness.)

At the beginning of the story, Brian Robeson, age 13, is on his way from New York to a summer visit with his father in the Canadian oil fields.  He’s the only passenger in a two-seater Cessna, with a pilot friendly enough to give him a few basic flying tips.  This comes in handy when, somewhere over northwest lakes, the pilot suffers a fatal heart attack and Brian is barely able to make a water landing.  He manages to struggle out of the sinking plane and get to safety—or rather, to land.  As night closes around him, a city boy with only the clothes on his back and the hatchet  his mother gave him as a going-away present, he clearly is not safe.

The story, written in spare, Hemmingway-esque prose, develops its own compelling forward motion.  In familiar order (for anyone who’s watched Cast Away or read Robinson Crusoe ), he must find food, build a fire, and construct some sort of shelter, the practical imperatives of which squash all the romanticism out of him:

Never, in all the reading, in the movies he had watched on television about the outdoors, never once had they ever mentioned the mosquitoes. All they ever showed on the naturalist shows was beautiful scenery or animals jumping around having a good time. Nobody ever mentioned mosquitoes and flies.

Besides the massive discomfort of insect bites, chilly nights, and stomach cramps, death is always staring him in the face.  On one memorable occasion, a rutting moose almost kills him.  On another, overcome with hunger, loneliness, and the residual sadness caused by his parents’ divorce, he makes an attempt to cut his wrist.  But fortunately, his heart isn’t fully committed to suicide, and his growing competence gives him reason to hope.  By the time he’s finally spotted and rescued, 54 days have passed and he’s a different person—in some ways better, in some ways perhaps not.  He’s certainly gained respect for the wilderness and its creatures, but it’s the respect of a kid who has fought and won.  Hatchet was so popular Paulsen went on to write several spinoffs, and the brand might have lost some of its authenticity with repetition.  The first book, I’m guessing, is probably the best.  (See discussion questions below)

Cautions : Character issues (The boy’s mother committed adultery, leading to the parents’ divorce and the boy’s great anger), Language (some misuses of God’s name)

Overall rating: 3.75  (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.0
• Artistic value: 5

Discussion Questions :

• When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and had to leave the garden, God told Adam that he would have to struggle to make a living off the land.  How do Brian’s struggles reflect that word?
• If you’ve ever thought of spending a few days in the wild, with only a few tools to survive, how do you think the experience might change you for the better?  For the worse?

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Hi! I started reading this book when it was recommended to my 8 year old son by a friend. I was concerned about some things and came to your site to get a Christian perspective. I am concerned that there are no CAUTIONS on this book. 1) It talks about a boy observing his mom kissing another man besides his dad, their subsequent divorce, and his hatred for his mom because of it. 2) It uses the name of God in vain at least 2-3 times. I have never used your site before but don’t feel that I can trust it to guide me when judging literature from a conservative Christian perspective on what to let my children read.

Jen, thank you for getting in touch with us. I wrote the Hatchet review several years ago as part of our “Environmentalist” series, as kind of a cautionary tale to over-romanticizing nature and man’s place in it. My bad–I had read the book years before and didn’t bother to reread the whole thing, causing me to miss the instances of profanity. (I usually try to flag those under “cautions”) I corrected that oversight and also upgraded the “recommended for” ages of readers–I think can be a valuable book for older kids, but 8 seems a bit young. For older readers, I would say this: Hatchet is not a Christian book and Paulsen so far as I know has not spiritual leanings. But I appreciate his unflinching look at nature, because it’s true that, after the fall, Nature is to some degree in opposition to humans. That’s why we tagged this book a “discussion starter”–our term for novels that don’t necessary express a Christian worldview, but nonetheless have some truth or insight to offer. Thanks for calling my attention to the review, and I hope you’ll give us another chance!

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On school reading lists, Gary Paulsen’s ‘Hatchet’ isn’t just required, it’s desired

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Damitri Boone read Gary Paulsen ’s “Hatchet” for the first and last time more than 30 years ago, but she remembers it so vividly it’s as though she turned the last page yesterday.

“‘Hatchet’ was something that was so out of the ordinary,” said Boone, a children’s librarian at the Inglewood Public Library. “You never read about children struggling to survive on their own, and that’s something that stood out to me.”

Paulsen , the acclaimed and prolific author of page-turning children’s novels of adventure and survival, including “Dogsong” and “The Winter Room” as well as “Hatchet,” died suddenly last Wednesday at his home in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported. He was 82.

Teachers and librarians in Los Angeles and beyond were saddened by the news but expressed deep gratitude to a man whose inspiring, plot-driven stories captivated readers young and old. Throughout his life, Paulsen wrote more than 100 books, sold more than 35 million copies, and was a three-time John Newbery Medal finalist and a recipient of the American Library Assn.’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement.

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But “Hatchet” stands above the rest. Published in 1986, the novel is prevalent in middle school libraries and classrooms — a staple of curricula, student book clubs and personal recommendations aimed at both reluctant and avid student readers. It has become ubiquitous in spite of — or perhaps because of — its darkness, as far as middle-grade books go. The narrator of “Hatchet,” Brian Robeson, a 13-year-old boy from New York City, is on a flight to see his father for the first time since his parents’ divorce when the small propeller plane crashes. The sole survivor, Brian must fend for himself in the Canadian wilderness with only his clothing, a ragged windbreaker and a hatchet — a gift from his mother.

As Boone put it: “Brian is thrown from a safe and secure world into another almost instantly.”

In the span of 54 days, Brain slowly learns how to survive — how to make a fire, how to hunt and fish and forage, how to build a shelter. When the boy is finally rescued, he’s transformed into a more patient, mature and understanding person.

“It’s just so iconic and yet relatable,” said Maureen Palacios, owner of Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose, “because people of course haven’t had that experience. But haven’t we all thought: ‘What could happen to us?’... People are always thinking that, kids especially. They have a vivid imagination.” Palacios called it a “survival story for the ages.”

That might have to do with its dual appeal to kids and the adults who tend to their reading. “Hatchet” teaches important lessons on resilience and resourcefulness under the guise of an irresistible adventure. It is recommended on the California Department of Education ‘s reading list as well as dozens of websites aimed at finding books that kids really want to read, whether or not it’s assigned.

Unlike Boone, Darla Magaña and Mara Alpert first read “Hatchet” and Paulsen ’s other work as adults.

Magaña, a school librarian at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, was getting her master’s in library science when the novel was assigned in a literature class.

“I knew as a school librarian that this was a home run book, a book that would turn kids into readers for life,” she said. And she was right. “If a reluctant reader is sent to me, I would often hand them ‘Hatchet,’ especially guys, and it turned on a lot of them into reading.” It’s one of those books that generate a waiting list at the library. “It’s not a shelf sitter.”

“Hatchet” is also frequently checked out at the Los Angeles Central Library , where Alpert works as a children’s librarian.

“It’s a thrilling story and one that really captures the imagination,” said Alpert. “What if you were a passenger aboard a plane with just a pilot and something happened and the plane crashed and you had to survive on your own? It’s something that’s interesting and horrifying to think about.”

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Alpert still remembers the scene in which the plane is plunging toward the ground. “It’s very visceral.”

Ashley McArdle, a fourth-grade teacher at Turning Point School in Culver City, also believes “Hatchet” has expanded the worldviews of her students. “They realize just how far away from civilization Brian is,” she says — and that “the world has a lot of wilderness and there’s less stuff available at your fingertips.” She added that one former student was so inspired by the story, he wrote his own adventure book.

McArdle ascribes the book’s lasting impact to the escape it provides, in the person of one resilient boy, from the regimentation of the typical school day. “In a world where they have all these planned activities and schedules, it’s empowering for them to read about that freedom and realize what they’re capable of if they really set their minds to it.”

As educator Mary Cory put it: “It’s a low-stakes exposure to something that they’ve never experienced before.”

Cory is a sixth-grade teacher in Rockford, Mich., who taught “Hatchet” for years at James Jordan Middle School in Winnetka. “The kids always wanted to finish it before I did in class,” she said, laughing. She doesn’t teach the book to her current students, but they bring it up on their own. “The first thing one of my sixth-graders told me is ‘My favorite book is “Hatchet.”’”

Cory loved the novel’s action growing up, but it’s the characters — and the way Paulsen captures their emotions and experiences — that made her fall in love with it.

“‘Hatchet’ is all about survival and the relationships that you build,” she said. “Paulsen had a passion for identifying strength in people and building them up to be who they are.”

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Book Review: “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen (1986)

Several years ago, when I was looking for another series of books to read as a family, I tried reading the Brian Saga to my then 7- and 8-year-old kids. And that wasn’t a great idea.

If memory serves me right, we had just finished reading The Little House books and eventually moved on to A Series of Unfortunate Events . One series was realistic and the other dangerous, but neither was both-and, and I think that was the rub. Hatchet is a dangerously realistic adventure story, and my young kids weren’t yet prepared for it.

Blame the vividly described heart attack in the first chapters of Hatchet , the plane crash and dead body, or the pervasive “secret” of Brian’s mother’s affair and ensuing divorce, it doesn’t matter. My kids hated the first chapters of this book that first time around, but this past week, we tried reading Hatchet again. At ages 10 and 11, they loved it.

Well, almost. My daughter still hated the death scene and neither of them wanted to hear what Brian eventually found out there in the lake when he swam out to find the survival bag. But beyond the gory scenes, the adventure was high, and my kids were so enthralled, they kept asking me for more. That’s a true sign of any great book.

The story is that of Brian Robeson whose plane crashes hundreds of miles off course in the Canadian wilderness, and he’s forced to survive alone for a period of time that to him seems endless. What begins as a terrifying experience and passes through suicidal hopelessness eventually turns into a transformational series of weeks in which Brian learns to adapt to his surroundings and finely hone his senses, develop his tool-making and food-gathering skills, and perfect his fishing abilities. The Brian that crash-landed on that lake is not the same Brian who eventually flies out of the bush, and this theme of adaptability and change is a heavy moral to the tale—and I’m sure to the series as a whole.

We’re not quite sure yet, but this coming year might become our Gary Paulsen year, just as this past year has been our Roald Dahl year. I’ve got quite a stack of Paulsen’s books on my shelves that I’ve picked up over the years, and this Brian Saga is the one that I’ve long wanted to devour. That my kids are so keenly interested now makes it all the more plausible that this year be it.

I can’t wait to see what other adventures Brian Robeson has awaiting him, as well as what other yarns Paulsen has awaiting us. It’ll be an adventurous year of reading, and you’re welcome to join the fun.

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My son, who is now 30, enjoyed all Paulsen books back in the day. I read them out loud to him at bedtime each night starting at about the age of 10. We sure enjoyed those adventures together. May you and your boys enjoy them too.

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Books of Brilliance

The latest book reviews and book news, hatchet: book review.

Hatchet book review!

Hatchet is a 1987 young adult survival novel by Gary Paulsen that switches between exciting action and melancholic thought on life’s questions. It is the first in a series of five novels , and won the 1988 Newbery Honor. Hatchet is an excellent novel for anyone, and will definitely keep you hooked!

Hatchet Summary

A thirteen year old boy named Brian Atcheson begins the book on a small, privately chartered plane to see his father, who works in the far north of the Canadian oil fields. Midway through his flight over the Canadian wild lands, the pilot suffers a heart attack, and the plane crashes into a small lake in the middle of the wilderness. Brian swims out of the wreck, the sole survivor, with nothing but a windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a parting gift.

Survival 

Throughout Hatchet , Brian uses nothing but his hatchet and his wits to survive all that comes his way, including starvation, dangerous animals, a tornado, and his own thoughts. He discovers how to make fire, and crafts spears and bows through nothing but ingenuity and what he has. While completely alone in the wilderness, he ponders his parent’s divorce, and thinks of how the feelings that developed after he caught his mother cheating conflict with his love for her.

Hatchet ends shortly after a tornado passes through the area, moving the wreckage of his plane close to shore. Brian swims down to find any supplies that may be on it, and discovers an emergency radio with other tools. Using this, he is rescued and returned to his father after many months of wilderness survival.

This novel is an interesting push into the depths of survival and solitude. Reminiscent of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden , it explores how a completely solitary character battles not only the elements, but also themselves. My spirits rose with Brian’s ingenious accomplishments, surviving against all odds; and I sympathized with his plights, alone with only his thoughts and his hatchet to keep him company. 

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is an exciting and emotional read for anyone! It explores many themes and may surprise even the most experienced readers.

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A Cry in the Wild is the book Hatchet turned into a movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA_023W3Xs4

Great book, as are all of Gary Paulsen’s books.

Great review! Hatchet sounds suspenseful and thought-provoking. The survival themes and emotional journey of the main character make for a great, gripping story. Thanks again, Chris Cantrell

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