Guess what -- Gary Paulsen was being kind to Brian. In Guts, Gary tells the real stories behind the Brian books, the stories of the adventur...
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Jul 13, 2011
Jilane
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Now I know why the Hatchet and Brian books did not appeal to me. This book is a nonfiction book about how many of the scenarios and situations came about in Hatchet. Very interesting but not my cup of tea. Hunting and the wilderness do not have an appeal to me. But the stories were well told and and interesting.
I did notice something in this book though. Paulsen talks often in his book about earning money for food and school clothes as a child. I am a mother and thought, " More...
I did notice something in this book though. Paulsen talks often in his book about earning money for food and school clothes as a child. I am a mother and thought, " More...
Feb 23, 2011
i thought this book was awwwwwwwwsome i first choose this book because i love gary paulsen and i love hachet. it is a autobiography about his life and what he did in his life which soon he truned into a book called hachet/brain song. the setting is is kinda everywhere first in forestes then up in moutains and kinda everywhere. the main chraracter is ofcrouse gary paulsen and this guy has been through sooooo much through his life he has seen people die and hes seen big animals and this guy has se
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Nov 07, 2010
Pam
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This last year you could say that I 'discovered' Gary Paulsen. My daughter brought 'Hatchet' home from school and we read it together and from there I branched out on my own, reading at least another dozen and half of his books. So keep in mind that I'm a bit of a fan-- though I hate that word.
In any case, I just picked up "Guts" and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not an autobiography in the sense that it tells the story of Gary's life, but it certainly gives you insight into More...
In any case, I just picked up "Guts" and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not an autobiography in the sense that it tells the story of Gary's life, but it certainly gives you insight into More...
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Jul 13, 2009
karen
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"there seems to be a river of rage just below the surface in moose that has no basis in logic, or at least any logic that i can see." this is a great sentence. and a great story that inspires this quote. montambo told me to read this, so i did. it is filling the "nonfiction" slot in my 10-work annotated bibliography assignment. this book is full of wonderful survival stories that illustrate the importance of staying out of the wilderness if you are unprepared for its hazards.
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Mar 22, 2009
Marfita
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Just not my type of book. Everyone wanted to know what Paulsen's true-life experiences were that gave him grist for his adventure story mill and this is the result. Whatever you do, don't read the first chapter if you're about to take a plane trip.
His story about the blizzard during the Iditarod makes me want to eradicate the concept. Fortunately, toward the end he tried to eat turtle eggs and got what was coming to him.
This is an excellent companion to his adventure stories, such More...
His story about the blizzard during the Iditarod makes me want to eradicate the concept. Fortunately, toward the end he tried to eat turtle eggs and got what was coming to him.
This is an excellent companion to his adventure stories, such More...
Feb 10, 2010
Jesse
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This book is a coplilation of stories told by the author of Hatchet, Gary Paulsen. The book is divided into different chapters where he tells stories relating to different topics such as moose attacks, hunting and fishing, things that hurt, etc. The stories cover a wide range and are always very dramatic. My personal favorite was probably about the near plane crashes that he has been in. Gary Paulsen is obviously the "main character" and all the other people in the stories usually play
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Oct 31, 2009
Sandra
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Move over Bear Grylls. Gary Paulsen, author of the Hatchet Books has soften been asked about his characters. A lot of his characters and their circumstances are based on actual events that have happened to him in real life. When I read about how he had sucked the eyes out of fish or eaten the guts of a squirrel. Maybe this is why my boys find this a really great book. He is a true survivalist and the reader of this book has a lot to learn from him. I enjoyed this book immensely. I realized he di
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Apr 13, 2009
Kenny
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The title "Guts" is indeed an appropriate name for this riveting account of Paulsen's real life experiences in the wilderness. I have yet to read Gary Paulsen's more famous book the Hatchet, but this book explains where he got his ideas from. Throughout the book, I was in so much suspense because the plot is so unpredictable. I would never have imagined how life would be like in the wilderness, but not Paulsen thoroughly explains how he did it. It is clear that Paulsen has a natural lo
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Oct 23, 2007
Eli
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i liked this book because it showed the life of an author wich to me this author had a very exciting life. another thing that was interesting was that this author wrote about how he used life experiences to write his book.
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Jan 24, 2012
Guts by Gary Paulsen is a memoir about Gary Paulsen that describes his thinking behind all of his books. He has wrote several books but the one that stands out the most is Hatchet. In this memoir he gives you his thinking and experiences that came up with the book Hatchet and all his other books like River. The memoir does a very good job about explaining his experiences for the crash and the survival of his main character Brian. The crash was inspired when he was in a plane that got its control
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Nov 14, 2010
Michele
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Interest level: 5th +
Reading level: medium
Genre: autobiography, adventure, survival, nature, hunting
After reading "Hatchet" I had to read the autobiography of author Gary Paulsen because I wanted to find out how he got his ideas for his books. "Guts" is written in the same style as "Hatchet" - it's hard to put down and very suspenseful. I was surprised to discover that much of what Gary Paulsen writes is actually based on many of his real-life e More...
Reading level: medium
Genre: autobiography, adventure, survival, nature, hunting
After reading "Hatchet" I had to read the autobiography of author Gary Paulsen because I wanted to find out how he got his ideas for his books. "Guts" is written in the same style as "Hatchet" - it's hard to put down and very suspenseful. I was surprised to discover that much of what Gary Paulsen writes is actually based on many of his real-life e More...
Sep 05, 2011
Niki
rated it: 
This book explained in detail the experiences Gary Paulsen had that enabled him to write Hatchet and his other Brian books based in reality. The stories he tells are interesting, but I think he goes into a little too much detail about how he makes his first bow and how to boil water. I guess if I'm going to need to survive in the wilderness it would be good to have such specific instructions, but I was a little bored at those parts. Then again, it is a non-fiction book, so I can't expect every w
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Jun 09, 2008
Erik
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Billed as “the true stories behind 'Hatchet' and the Brian books”, this breezy book by Gary Paulsen is guaranteed to freak and gross you out. You’ll think twice about venturing unprepared out in the wilderness – just in case you have that in mind – when he recounts many of the following: beating beaten by a moose, the death of a young child at the hands (hooves?) of a fawn (yes, I know that sounds unbelievable), being near-on eaten alive by a swarm of mosquitoes (and here I thought wasps or bees
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May 27, 2011
Iskreads
rated it:
If you are a person who daily goes out into the wild. Written by Gary Paulson who talks about his experiences in the wild who talks a lot about how he lived there and how he struggled and learnt from his mistakes in the wild. My favorite part of the book is when Gary is nearly killed by a moose but it just runs past him. The best quote in the book is "Now I was falling and falling fast" (Paulson 14) . This quote talks about when Gary is falling into the wilderness.
Feb 08, 2012
Julie
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I am so glad that I finally read this book. I did not realize that Gary Paulsen was such a cool guy. There are three, hysterical pages where he describes being rescued with his sled dogs by a small airplane. The dogs, frightened by the engine noise, run to the tail of the plane, and Paulsen spends the flight throwing the dogs forward, one by one, as they come racing back and the pilot curses in the background. I'm totally reading those pages to my classes tomorrow. :)
Nov 14, 2011
Joaquin
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I thought that the book Guts by Gary Paulsen was really good and interesting because the whole time through out the book there was so much action and its all about his life how when he was four and saw kids and there moms drowning up until now and it made me think twice about how i say that my life sucks mean while Gary Paulsen saw kids die hes been in more than 5 plane crashes and survived and i have the nerve to say my life sucks how dare me.
Jun 10, 2010
Seth
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Guts is a great book by Gary Pualsen! he talks about how he got the inspiration for his book The Hatchet. In this book he tells us some of the real life things that have happened to his and how he has transformed those stories into the story about
Brian Robenson from The Hatchet. Also Paulsen tells us what to do and how to survive in life or deah situations like Brian was in. A good book for nature lovers and campers
Brian Robenson from The Hatchet. Also Paulsen tells us what to do and how to survive in life or deah situations like Brian was in. A good book for nature lovers and campers
Nov 29, 2011
Sophie
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Guts is the BEST biography I have ever read. It is perfect because you can read the chapters out of order because every chapter is about a different thing like one chapter is about heart attacks and moose attacks. I think you would like Guts by Gary Paulson if you like exciting books. It is all about different things that happened to Gary Paulson and how he came up with the ideas for hatchet. Most of the ideas really happened to Gary Paulson in real life like he really ate turtle eggs. You have
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Jul 15, 2011
Matthew
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This was a tough book to pinpoint. Gary Paulsen is not your typical writer though. It seems like he could have written a lot of very interesting nonfiction about his life as an adventurous nature dweller (I won't say nature lover because I don't think it's as much about love as it is addictive dependance for him), but he was more interested in relaying his experience through fiction. There are quite a few moments in this book where I cringe, not because the quality of the writing is any less tha
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Sep 30, 2011
Samantha
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It was a gross book. And it was the only book i could find at the time that was in my lexile range. So heads up I wouldnt read it if I were you. Unless you like gut spilling thrillers. The one I liked the most was probably the one where the pilot was flying a plane to L.A. and had a heart attack and died then his body blew up. And that one was the only one i would choose if I had to choose.
Oct 25, 2009
Laura
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I liked this book even more than the other memoir I read by Gary Paulsen (How Angel Peterson got his Name). Gary Paulsen is an incredible outdoorsman who actually tried out every scenario he put into Hatchet (an awesome survival story). I read aloud a portion of this book (the section on flying with his sled dogs) while booktalking to 8th graders and they were totally hooked.
Jul 24, 2008
Jess
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This book would have been better for me if I had read Paulsen's Hatchet and the Brian series books. He explains how events in his own life became events in his fiction books. My husband, who loved Hatchet as a child, also read Guts, and he really enjoyed understanding how Paulsen came up with the ideas for Hatchet. He said there were some images from Hatchet that have stuck with him throughout his life, and all of those were based on something that Paulsen experienced or saw others experience.
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Sep 10, 2011
Gracie
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This was very interesting, but I'm am not the biggest fan of nonfiction. However since this nonfiction book DID talk about how he came up with his idea's for Hatchet (and the following books in this series) it was quite interesting. I recommend this to people who enjoy non-fiction or going more in depth to favorite fiction reads!
Apr 07, 2008
Malbadeen
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Geesh I forgot that the first story in this book has about a bazillion reference to death, including a scene wherein a plane breaks in half and the people "spill out" into the water and are eaten by sharks and a really sad scene where a 50 year old man dies of a heart attack (described with vivid detail) at the dinner table?
I remembered when I was reading it aloud to the 3rd graders and they keept asking "is this real"?! and I kept having to say "yes".
th More...
I remembered when I was reading it aloud to the 3rd graders and they keept asking "is this real"?! and I kept having to say "yes".
th More...
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May 05, 2011
Jamie
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It was pretty interesting, but very short.
I kinda wish he'd ben more descriptive and wrote of more stories then the few given in this book, because he just seems to have lived such an intense life. I enjoyed it and it reminds me of the goood old days when I read his Brian books. :)
I kinda wish he'd ben more descriptive and wrote of more stories then the few given in this book, because he just seems to have lived such an intense life. I enjoyed it and it reminds me of the goood old days when I read his Brian books. :)
Jan 05, 2012
Rahul
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I started reading this book because my class was reading it and because there was going to be test on this book.
I liked how Brian Robeson continues to get himself out of there. When knowing that it would take him a lot of hard work although he was only 13 years old he tried his best and in the end he got out of there.
What I didn't like about the book was when he saw his mum with the other man that was a big distraction for him. Because that made him sad.
I learned that when we d More...
I liked how Brian Robeson continues to get himself out of there. When knowing that it would take him a lot of hard work although he was only 13 years old he tried his best and in the end he got out of there.
What I didn't like about the book was when he saw his mum with the other man that was a big distraction for him. Because that made him sad.
I learned that when we d More...
Nov 24, 2009
Marilyn
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I found the book interesting, but a little bit of a let down for Hatchet. Mr. Paulsen has lived a very full, eventful life. He has overcome many trails and many hardships that would have crippled other people. An enjoyable read.
Mar 29, 2009
David
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This book was really good. It was about the different survival techniques Gary has had to use throughout his life. Hatchet would be a good book to read after this because Hatchet is based on alot of his stories from this book.
Nov 30, 2011
The book was okay I like about it was that it was just like Hatchet the movie. The book was interesting because the man in the story flew in a airplane and crashed onto land know he will need to get out by serving
