Spring 2019, Wild Readers 5 discussion

When reading “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen I was hanging onto every page. This very suspenseful story is terrifying, yet full of hope for main character Brian Robeson. The story begins with Brian taking a small plane to see his father who had just recently divorced his mother. He and the pilot are the only two on the plane. Suddenly the pilot gets a massive heart attack and dies leaving Brian to crash-land the plane into a lake. Now stranded in the wilderness Brian must go into full survivor mode to make it out of there and be found alive. During his time in the wilderness Brian has to fend for himself, learning to find food, build a shelter, and hope that someone comes to rescue him soon. Throughout the story Paulson weaves in memories of before the divorce Brian thinks of during his time in the wilderness. You get slight glimmers of hope during the story when rescue planes fly overhead, but sadly the rescue team doesn’t see him. This hits Brian hard and you see him lose all hope. Time passes and he finally gets hope back and learns to hunt, fish, maintain shelter, and survives getting attacked by wild animals.Then when a tornado hits the forest we get another glimpse of hope when he is able to find the pilots survival kit which has an emergency transmitter that he sees isn’t working. After this you believe will he ever make it out? I loved this novel so much and would recommend to anyone. It is a story that is heartbreaking, gruesome, and full of hope. Brian is a true testament of never giving up.