Hatchet

Author: Gary Paulsen
Illustrator (cover): Neil Waldman

© Date: 1987
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 195
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: No
Publisher Recommended Age: 10-14 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No

Summary from Book: Green trees and blue lakes fill Brian Robeson’s vision as he flies—in a single engine plane—to visit his father for the first time since his parents’ divorce. Brian’s mind is filled with thoughts.

He knows why his mother left his father, and is obsessed by his knowledge of The Secret. This knowledge haunts him—even after the plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and he is left, the lone survivor, on a rugged piece of land that juts out into the water….

Brian’s fifty-four days in the wilderness are recorded in vividly realistic scenes of struggles that both prompt and evoke a boy’s coming of age. Newbery Honor Book author Gary Paulsen writes with the sureness of one who has experienced the wild for himself, brilliantly crafting a fast-paced adventure that is unforgettably real—and a gripping metaphor for life.

Page Pig Thoughts:

Was this one well written? Yes.

Was this one a challenging read linguistically? Not really.

Could I see someone loving this book? Yes.

Did I enjoy reading it? No.

I was impressed with Brian’s courage and resolve to survive, but I apparently am not much of a survival story fan. Brian’s adventures in the woods were not enthralling for me. And I did not enjoy reading about the pilot having a heart attack or Brian thinking about the pilot’s dead body in the bottom of the lake.

I was surprised and a little bothered that no mention was made of concern for eating safe berries. Brian either magically found safe ones or could identify them, but it seemed that he just got lucky because he never had any trepidation about eating something that would end rather badly for him.

In a Mr. Lemoncello book by Chris Grabenstein [review], Sierra Russell said that she reads Hatchet when she is having a bad day. I was curious about this book. But I now know that I would not choose to read it when I am having a bad day because I have no interest in reading it again, just reading it once made my day not as great. Although this one makes me appreciate the Bear Grylls books [review] more, those have some discussion around survival in a way that I found more appealing.

Use caution with younger or sensitive readers, Brian seeing his mother kissing a man other than his father, the pilot’s heart attack, and killing/cooking animals may be upsetting.

Family Unit: Brian’s mother and father are freshly divorced.

Conflict/Social Issues:

Brian is upset about his parents divorce and keeping the secret of his mother kissing a random man.
The pilot flying Brian to see his father for the summer has a heart attack, Brian has to figure out how to land the plane. The radio does not get reception for anyone to find him while he is still in the air.
Brian needs to learn how to survive in the woods.

Positive Items:

Brian had resolve to live and found courage when he needed it.
Brian had some loose concepts in wilderness survival skills that helped him stay calmer.
Brian is rescued before fall/winter set in and he would seriously struggle.

Items of Interest:

Brian is bothered by The Secret that he knows started the path to his parents’ divorce, but he doesn’t tell anyone that he knows. When he was out riding bikes with his friend, he sees his mother in a parking lot with a man that was not his father. He watches his mother passionately kiss the man. She asked for a divorce from his father not long after that but never said why. Brian knows that she goes to visit the man on certain days of the week. The Secret bothers him, but even after he returns from the woods, he never tells anyone that he knows.
When his mother is driving him to the airport, she gives Brian the gift of a hatchet. She makes him put it on his belt so that she can see how it looks. Brian is embarrassed/doesn’t like it, but forgets that it is there. Having that hatchet on his belt is what keeps Brian alive. He learns how to make fire with it, he makes weapons with it, he depends on it. When he is trying to break into the plane at the end of the story, Brian accidentally drops the hatchet into the lake. He curses his carelessness and makes bold dives to the bottom of the lake to retrieve the one tool that he depends on.
Brian was sitting in the copilot seat of a small bushplane, a Cessna 406, on his way to his first summer with his father. Brian was sitting in the co-pilot seat because it was a seat to sit in.
The pilot starts having bad stomach gas, then clutches his left arm, the stomach gas got worse. Then the pilot complains about his chest. The pilot convulses, then goes motionless. When Brian finally gathers courage to touch him, the pilot has no pulse.
Brian manages to steer the plane for a glide until the plane runs out of fuel. Brian had decided that aiming for a lakeshore would be the best place to crash. He attempts to steer for a lakeshore, but the plane catches on some trees before going into the lake. The windshield of the plane blew out, so Brian manages to unbuckle himself and unsnag himself and swim to the shore.
Brian later has visions of the pilot strapped into his seat at the bottom of the lake with his hair swaying in the water. When he is able to go into the plane again after nearly 2 months, he is afraid to look in the pilot’s seat. He finds that fish have cleaned the skull, so it is just a skeleton bone that moves in the water.
Brian has a head wound and other miscellaneous injuries after the crash. He falls asleep under a tree, gets massively sunburned and eaten by a swarm of mosquitoes. His eyes are nearly puffed shut.
Brian drinks straight lake water.
Brian needs food and find his way to a berry bush. He gorges himself on the unknown berries, then later starts vomiting and has diarrhea. He deems those berries “gut cherries” but eats them in smaller quantities.
Brian finds a raspberry bush and has a close run in with a black bear. The bear was eating berries and just walks by him.
Brian makes himself a shelter under a rock overhang.
Brian finds a freshly made turtle nest in the sand. He gathers up the eggs. He eats several eggs raw, then stashes the rest in the sand of his shelter.
A porcupine comes through his shelter at night. In the dark, Brian has no idea what is there. He kicks at the mystery creature and winds up with 8 porcupine quills in his calf. He rips the quills out one by one.
A skunk comes into the shelter at night. The skunk sprays Brian in the face. The skunk steals all the turtle eggs. Brian attempts to wash himself in the lake, but the smell stays on his clothes and other things for a long time.
Brian discovers that his hatchet will create sparks on the wall of his shelter. Brian goes about learning how to make fire. He collects enough wood for a signal fire on the top of his rock overhang.
When Brian is out collecting food, he hears a search plane. He sprints back to start his signal fire, but the plane was already past and never turned around. Brian then despairs for a bit before hardening himself with resolve to survive.
Brian makes a spear for fishing. He learns how to stab the fish, which takes quite awhile. He later creates a bit of a fish trap. He puts fish guts and other things into a small area where the fish swim in and can’t swim out. That traps them for him to later spear them.
Brian learns how to cook his fish over the fire, no mention is made of gutting it or anything. He spears them whole, cooks them, picks the meat out from under the skin. Then throws the rest into the lake, later his fish trap.
Brian makes a bow and arrow. His first attempt nearly blinds him. The wood that he used shatters and shards fly into his face just above his eyes.
Brian learns how to catch “fool birds.” He learns how to spot them, ill them, and eat them. The first time he kills one, he has to figure out how to get the feathers off and eat it.
Brian learns how to kill rabbits and eat them.
A moose attacks Brian and injures his ribs. The moose plows Brian into the ground repeatedly for no apparent reason.
A tornado whips through the area. All of Brian’s stuff is scattered/broken. He no longer has a shelter, wood for a fire, his fish trap, his spear, or his bow and arrow. He is just left with himself and his hatchet.
The tornado spins around the plane in the lake so that the tail is sticking out of the water. Brian realizes that he can likely get into the plane to get out the survival pack. He makes a raft out of logs and swims to the plane. He uses his hatchet to hack through the aluminum and make an opening to get inside the plane. The survival pack is caught down behind the pilot’s seat. Brian manages to wriggle it free.
Brian goes through the contents of the survival pack and feels rich. He now has a sleeping bag and so many dehydrated meals. He has mixed feelings about the rifle because he realizes that will disconnect him from nature, not keep him connected. An emergency transmitter is included in the pack, Brian doesn’t realize that he actually turned it on.
Before Brian can eat the dehydrated food feast that he makes for himself, a plane responds to the emergency transmitter. The pilot is shocked because he realizes Brian is the kid that was on the news and the search for him ended nearly two months before. The pilot was a fur buyer that flew from camp to camp to buy fur from the Cree.
When home, Brian researches the things that he encounters and learns the names of the wildlife and berries. His personality was forever altered and he was more aware of things. His parents were over the moon that the was alive, but wound up still going their divorced ways.