Hatchet - Nice Job

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Hatchet is part of Gary Paulsen's series called Brian's Saga, though almost nobody talks about anything but Hatchet.

The photo you usually see for this book is shown at the right.

It's a ridiculous picture.

The picture below is the one that was on the cover of the copy that I actually read.

It's a little better.

That's pretty much the worst thing I have to say about this book.


I've known of Hatchet for many years - probably since shortly after it was published in 1987.

I had no inclination to read it until now. It's much better than I expected. I think I read the whole thing in just 4 sittings.

That's really, really fast for me.

By the way, I don't intend to read any of the other titles in Brian's Saga. I want to move a little more quickly through my list of children's books. This is a change in tactics compared to my original intent when I started this project.

The plot of Hatchet can be summarized very quickly.

Boy, flying in small plane, crashes in the Canadian wilderness after his pilot dies of a heart attack. He survives alone for several weeks until he retrieves a survival pack from the plane which contains an emergency transmitter. After he unknowingly turns it on, someone quickly rescues him in another small plane.

You might think that this book would appeal more to boys than girls, but I'm not so sure about that. I think there are plenty of girls who would enjoy the adventure, even though the main character is a boy.

Hatchet is one of just a few books that I highly recommend to this point in Grandpa's Reviews.

By the way, the wolf shown on both book covers has almost nothing to do with the story. The moose is much more important.