Hatchet

by Gary Paulsen

book data

8361 ratings, 3.73 average rating, 985 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		25%
4		35%
3		27%
2		8%
1		3%

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published

July 1st 2005 (first published 1987) by Macmillan Children's Books

binding

Paperback, 128 pages

literary awards

Newbery Honor

isbn

0330439731 (isbn13: 9780330439732)

description

On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engin...more

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Joseph rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

11/02/07

bookshelves: freshmen1

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: Everyone

basically, Biran is the main character in the story, he is getting on a plane to go visit his father; his parents are divorced. he also has a giant burden on his back, his mother was having an affair.
before he leaves , his mother gives him a hatchet. after, he sets off, he talks with the pilot and has a little fun by piloting the airplane swerving and swoppoing up and down. until suddenly, the pilot has a heartattack becasue of gas and dies. brian is forced to fly the plane himself, but until...more basically, Biran is the main character in the story, he is getting on a plane to go visit his father; his parents are divorced. he also has a giant burden on his back, his mother was having an affair.
before he leaves , his mother gives him a hatchet. after, he sets off, he talks with the pilot and has a little fun by piloting the airplane swerving and swoppoing up and down. until suddenly, the pilot has a heartattack becasue of gas and dies. brian is forced to fly the plane himself, but until the fuel runs out, he stops at a lake to kind of softne the impact.
he wakes upon a beach.
this starts him on his new journey, a journey to survive. this is kind of a rebirth for him; he learns to do things he would nt neccesarily do in life, but now that he has to, he is. he learns how to survive, he fends off cretures such as skinks, porcupines, bears, and mooses; he is able to be keep himself from starvation by findinf food among trees and the creatures of the wild such as fowls and rabbits and fish. he also creates his own shelter, fire,, his own weapons for hunting, a pond for which he keeps a stock of fish, and a list of things he makes so that his life is a little bit ore easier than it is in the wild( even though its not that easy in the first place). basically, one day, a tornado rips his location apart. he still survives, but when he goes outside, he sees that the plane he flew in was flipped up. he then figures out that there was a survival pack in the back of the plane; he goes and retireves it.
after hard work, he ravages through the bag. he finds his own riches such as pots and pans, food, guns, radio which he immedialitey uses. he then feasts on packs of food and drink from the survival pack.
until a plane comes and lands in the lake. he steps out and sees brian.
the stroy ends with the epilouge wchich tells of brian and how he was the kid people had been looking for for over two months. how he had no fat in hsi body anymore and exploited the area in which he lived in and ws able to survive in.

i really enjoyed this story. it seems like one of the stories that you know you can learn from if youre ever in brians situation. i know that if i was in the wilderness near a lake, i could proibably reenact his actions to survive; but id most defintiely need a hatchet, or he and i would naver ever be able to pull anything off. .....awesome story:)...less

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Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

05/10/07

recommends it for: No one. This is the worst book I have ever read.

So when I was in the 7th grade, Mrs. Randall (formerly Sr. Mary Randall, an ex-nun) FORCED this pile of garbage upon me and the rest of my unsuspecting classmates. I was an advanced reader and it was a relatively short, easy to swallow book but it took me FOREVER TO READ IT. because it was THAT FUCKING BORING. It's about this stupid snot of a kid whose parents are getting divorced (mom and dad broke up! boo-hoo :'( i'm scarred for life now!) and somehow his plane goes down in the wilderness ...more

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12 comments

Mc Mac rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

01/14/08

Read in April, 2000

recommended to Mc Mac by: a teacher
recommends it for: Everyone its a very good book

This book is the Hatchet written by Gary Paulson. It is about a boy who goes to see his dad in Canada for a trip but things go terribly wrong. He is in a bush plane when the pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian is forced to fly and land the plane on an L shaped lake. He has to face the wilderness on his own for a long period of time. Some of the problems he faces is getting food from the wilderness. At first all he has is his hatchet and the cloths on his back but after a while he start...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

1 comment

Max rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

10/28/07

Read in September, 2007

(fwiw this is a book I read my kids aged 6-10)

I'd give this book 3.5 stars if I could. Basically the stuff which makes it a classic and is indeed very good is the adventure/survival stuff (he is the sole survivor of a plane crash deep in the woods and has nothing but a hatchet). Both the details of what he is doing to survive, and the psychological changes he goes through in his attempt to survive are believable, interesting, and illuminating.

There is a second thread in the book which ...more

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Jeane rated it:

(review of isbn 1416936475)

09/22/07

bookshelves: yaliteraturejournal

Read in September, 2007

Paulsen, Gary (1987). Hatchet. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. 186 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: One summer day thirteen year-old Brian Robeson sets off on a journey to visit his father in northern Canada. Not long into the flight the unthinkable happens -- the plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and Brian, the lone survivor, is faced with having to survive on his own with only one possession, a hatchet. Through this ordeal Brian learns important life skills incl...more

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Nichole added it (review of isbn 0689840926)

12/04/07

bookshelves: chapter, realistic-fiction

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: 4th-7th

Written by Gary Paulsen, published by Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 1987.

Summary: A story about a young boy whose family is torn apart by divorce. He travels on a prop plane to see his dad in Canada but during the flight, the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies. Brian crashes the plane into a lake and amazingly survives the crash. The novel follows his transformation through surviving 54 days in the wilderness before he is rescued.

Response: I loved this story. I think in...more

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Cara rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

12/09/08

The most boring book ever.... it also skips like 30 days and then just keeps doing flashbacks so it gets confusing.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

3 comments

Henry rated it:

(review of isbn 1416936475)

01/03/08

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: boys and tomboys the world over (and any adult counterpart suffering nostalgia)

My first foray into childhood favorites for one unlikely-to-succeed purpose: converting my brother from books about Harry Potter to books about anything else, in the world. Any suggestions?

When I first read Hatchet, at around ten or twelve, I devoured it time and time again. The idea of learning wilderness survival with nothing but a hatchet and my own wits prickled the pores of my baby-smooth chest with visions of man-hair, tufts and tufts of it, more than I knew what to do with, for after ...more

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Josh rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

01/14/08

recommends it for: everyone

The noval Hatchet is one of my favorite books of all time. This is a fictional adventure book. It is about a boy named Brian Robeson. After finding out about the divorce of his parents, he is emotionaly damaged. On his way to the airport, to visit his father, Brians mother gives him a gift. The gift was a hatchet, a very well crafted hatchet. On the plane to his father's house he experiences the fear of all. Brian and the piolet are the only ones on the plane. The piolet has a heart attack and t...more

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Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

01/14/08

Read in June, 2002

recommends it for: ANYONE!

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

01/03/08

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: people who like the out doors

Have you ever heard of the book Hatchet? I have, and after reading that book I thought it had a lot of high-quality details that caught the reader’s attention. Once you start reading it you will not be able to suspend. Brian is the main character. In this book he ends up going on trip to Canada where his dad lives. Brian’s parents got a divorce because Brian’s mom was cheating on his dad. Before Brian left, she gave him something. It’s was a hatchet. Then the plane took off and Brian be...more Have you ever heard of the book Hatchet? I have, and after reading that book I thought it had a lot of high-quality details that caught the reader’s attention. Once you start reading it you will not be able to suspend. Brian is the main character. In this book he ends up going on trip to Canada where his dad lives. Brian’s parents got a divorce because Brian’s mom was cheating on his dad. Before Brian left, she gave him something. It’s was a hatchet. Then the plane took off and Brian began his trip to Canada. To sum up, this is where the whole story starts.

On his way to Canada, Brian felt as if the plane ride lasted for thousands of hours. During the trip, Brian started to weep because he was thinking about his parents divorce. The pilot tried not to notice. Later, a smell lit up the entire plane. Brian turned to the pilot and noticed that he was struggling and grabbing his chest. Brian knew exactly what was going on. The pilot was having a hear attack. Suddenly, the pilot died, and brain was flying with no pilot and had no idea what to do. This is the turning point of the story, the climax.

The rest of the story I will leave for you to find out. I think this book is extremely exciting and it will make you want to read over and over again. When reading this book it is as if you were watching a movie. The book has a gloomy mood more towards the begging, but then becomes cheerful towards the end. I would recommend this book to anyone, and I would give it a four star rating. This book has lessons about survival and teaches you how much life is really worth. If you like books that lead the reader on, then this book is for you. It takes place in the woods of Canada and it is non-fiction. Brian’s tone in the story is kind of depressing and heated. He is kind of mad towards his mom. The hatchet that brains mom gave to him at the begging is the symbolism of the story. He says if there was not hatchet then there will be no life because that is the thing he needs for survival. In conclusion, this is a great book and I would defiantly recommend it.

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Ice rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

02/14/08

This book is about 'Brian' who lives with his mom. He is traveling to meet his father in Canada when the bush pilot he is flying with has a heart attack. He crashes into the Canadian wilderness and nearly dies as he escapes from the crashed plane. He then has to survive on his own with only a hatchet for a companion. He lives and works while fighting to survive and with no sign of rescue.

The author's purpose for writing this book is to show you what it is to live and what it is to become a m...more

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Jeff rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

01/03/09

Read in December, 2008

Pretty decent story, though I think a little more exposition of the internal growth of the boy to the man would have been nice. Change seemed nearly as abrupt as Anakin to Vader in Star Wars (not a compliment).

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Mohammad rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

11/10/08

Read in January, 2006

This book talks about a fourteen year old boy whose parents are divorced. He is on his airplane to Canada to visit his dad who resides there, until an unfortunate event occurs. The plane crashes in the wilderness between Canada and The United States. This story tells about him and his journey of survival in the wilderness.

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Daniel rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

09/18/07

Read in January, 1990

What I learned from Hatchet:

1. If you see a man grimacing in pain, it could be a heart attack. If this man is the pilot of a charter prop plane that you're flying alone in, you could be fucked.

2. If you eat mysterious berries, they just might give you severe diarrhea. And, having just been marooned in a plane crash, you could lack the proper facilities to expel the diarrhea within. So, you could end up shitting your brains out in a cave. Since the tender age of 9, when I glanced upon...more

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Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

10/10/08

bookshelves: children-ya

It's a matter of principle (ego?) with me that I never gave a book to my children or grandchildren that I hadn't read myself (pre-ordered Harry Potter books excepted) but this one was urged on ME by a grandson. Reader, I read it. And you know what? This plausible, taut, survival story is spellbinding.

Stranded in the Canadian wilderness with only the clothes on his back and a hatchet, Brian Robeson must put his bitter thoughts of his parents' divorce behind and deal with trying to stay al...more

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2 comments

Lindsey rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

12/30/08

Read in December, 2008

I recently read this book to my 6th graders. They LOVED it, but I couldn't get past Gary Paulsen's constant repetition and run-on sentences. As an English major, a person who has been conditioned to look for and discourage such errors, it was so annoying to me every time he would use the same word seven times in a row or write a sentence that went on for a mile. Even the kids started to pick up on it and say, "Why has he said 'secret' so much here? That's really getting on my nerves." ...more

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Kellie rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

01/05/09

bookshelves: books-for-some-sort-of-class, not-mine-and-read

Read in January, 2008

Another book from the required reading list that I actually enjoyed rather more than I thought I would.

Hatchet was an incredibly quick read and pretty entertaining at that. While my 25-year-old mind wondered if a kid really could learn all of those skills quite that fast, I think the book was well written and in vivid detail (between this book and the hunger games I'm over the gore for the moment).

I'm not entirely sure what the main lesson was in this book. Survival? Stick with it? Use ...more

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Nicanor rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

12/15/08

The book I read was Hatchet this book is about a boy named Brian that his parents are separated and live in different places and Brian lives with his mom and in the summer goes to visit his dad. But while in the plane the pilot seems to have a heat attack! Brian thinks on things to do but when finally he has a plan it doesn’t seem to work. Next thing Brian knows he is in land and very hungry. Brian with his present from his mom, a hatched has to get fire, get food and most importantly survive ...more

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elissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0689840926)

04/09/08

bookshelves: childrensnovels, my_00s_reads, survival_stories

Read in April, 2008

I've been meaning to read this forever, and I'm glad that I finally got around to it, because it's really excellent! My son recently read it for a school project, and liked it, so I figured it was about time to read it myself. I like survival stories a lot, and this is definitely a good one. It seemed extremely realistic, and was compelling all the way through.

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