Hatchet

In Gary Paulsen’s Newberry Honor book, Hatchet, he shows—as opposed to tells--exactly what survival is like as he leads the reader through thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson’s mental and physical struggle for survival after his plane goes down in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

Hatchet is one of the few, if not only, books that appears on practically every recommended reading list for boys, so I had to find out if this book is worth all the fuss. It definitely is! This realistic fiction is absolutely everything it’s cracked up to be. The book begins with the main, and pretty much only, character, Brian, in a single engine plane on his way to spend summer vacation with his father. Brian’s parents are recently divorced and he harbors a secret about why they split which sets up the internal struggle reflective of the physical struggle he’ll endure after his pilot has a heart attack and dies in mid-flight. Brian’s one saving grace comes ironically from his mother—the target for his bitterness--who gives him a hatchet as a going-away present. The hatchet is what allows Brian to survive.

For the observant reader, the hatchet and all of Brian’s harsh encounters with nature are metaphors for what Paulsen calls “the art of survival,” whether it be “getting through heavy traffic, facing an illness, or living in a rough neighborhood." Paulsen says, “The tools for survival are in all of us, just waiting to be used.” In Hatchet the reader gets to watch as Brian figures out how to dig deep and use those tools.

Paulsen crafts every detail with such painstaking patience that you feel as if you are right inside Brian’s world, the world of nature which is right under our noses and yet as unfamiliar to most of us as outer space. But Brian’s mind is as much the setting as the wilderness, and Paulsen's writing style--short, choppy, incomplete sentences--makes you feel like you're right inside his mind as he works through his challenges. Overall, the novel is crafted so carefully, you not only see it, but hear it, smell it, taste it and feel it all.

One of the greatest achievements of Hatchet is Paulsen’s ability to completely engage readers with a bare-bone plot and a one-man show. There are no glittery gimmicks or over-the-top antics. In fact, when you turn the last page and close the book, I guarantee you’ll miss Brian and his simple, but far from easy, existence in the woods. Luckily, there are several sequals to this novel. Brian's Winter, Brian's River and The Return. (Brian's winter is especially interesting because it continues the story of Hatchet as if the ending never happened).

This book is ultimately about making mistakes, rebuilding, growing, changing and healing. It is the kind of material I want shaping the minds and hearts of my boys.