by
3.57 of 5 stars
On a trip to visit his father, 13-year-old Brian is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. With only the clothes on his bac... read full description

reviews

Aug 06, 2011
karen rated it: 5 of 5 stars
yes yes yes!! thank you to all the goodreaders who recommended this to me after my love for island of the blue dolphins became known. it turns out i love survival stories!! with teens!! and i wish i could say i never tore my eyes from the page and read this in an hour, but i have been having a distractedish day today; emailing my dad for fathers day (everyone: call your dads!! or if they are at work, email-chat them!) and then there was a fire across the street from me (which is my number one al More...
182 comments like (41 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Rachel rated it: 1 of 5 stars
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...
52 comments like (53 people liked it)
Nov 09, 2011
I have to be honest. At first I was having a serious 'really?' moment as I started listing. The 'really?' was because this is a three-time Newberry Award winner, and I thought the prose was way too repetitive. The same word would be repeated three times. The same sentences twice. I was steeling myself to keep listening and hope it got better. It did. By the end of this novel, I totally realized why it is a Newberry Award winner.

Hatchet is a story of survival. The protagonist is a More...
6 comments like (10 people liked it)
Nov 02, 2007
Joseph rated it: 5 of 5 stars
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 u More...
0 comments like (8 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
Henry rated it: 3 of 5 stars
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, fo More...
2 comments like (3 people liked it)
Oct 28, 2007
Max rated it: 4 of 5 stars
(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 More...
1 comment like (9 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
Mallory rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Awards Won: Newbery Honor (1988), William Allen White Children's Book Award (Kansas) (1990), Young Hoosier Book Award for 6-8 (1991), Buckeye Children's Book Award for 6-8 (1991), Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1995), Flicker Tale Children's Book Award (1990), Sequoyah Book Award for Young Adult (1990), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (1989), Virginia Readers' Choice for Middle (1989), Golden Archer Award (1989), Soaring Eagle Book Award (1997)

This is an excellen More...
3 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jul 03, 2011
Monique rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I will be honest: I didn't really enjoy this book. And I even had high expectations because it's the recipient of the Newbery Honor.

I had just read “The Life of Pi” a few weeks ago and enjoyed it immensely despite its otherwise relatively boring, dialogue-less narrative – one that can be expected from a book about a shipwrecked teenage boy (albeit with a Bengal tiger for company). This children's book, Hatchet, had a similar plot: thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson was on his way to see More...
4 comments like (5 people liked it)
Jan 14, 2008
Mc Mac rated it: 5 of 5 stars
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...
2 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
Jeane rated it: 3 of 5 stars
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 including patienc More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Feb 14, 2009
Faith rated it: 1 of 5 stars
Though the story was compelling, very compelling, compelling enough that I finished it despite the compelling urge to throw it out the window, I don't think I could ever read it again. The window, oh the shiny window, the shiny open window was very tempting. This book was so repetitious, why so repetitious, I know not why this book was so repetitious, but the repetitions made me want to pull my hair out. My brown hair, the brown hair on my head, the hair that was brown that was on my head. More...
6 comments like (22 people liked it)
Dec 04, 2007
Nichole added it



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 l More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
John rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When Brian's plane crash lands in the Canadian wilderness, Brian must learn to survive in the forest all by himself with only his clothes and a hatchet given to him by his mum...

I wouldn't say this was the best book I've read but I wouldn't say it was one of the worst. This book gives you that feel that 'you're all alone in an unknown place with who knows what kind of dangers there may be'. And yes, it did make me a little scared. But despite the rather, in my opinion, boring ending More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Feb 15, 2009
Nathan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
The Story sets off in a single engine plane, Brian Robenson the main character sitting in the cockpit beside a pilot that he does not know the name to. Brian is hurting down ddep inside when the story flashbacks to a memory when he saw his mother with another guy at the mall, there is more to the story but that is all Brian's recollection to the flashback at that moment. A few weeks later his mother demands for a divorce. Soon he is forced to leave on plane to see his father in Cananada. Right b More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Feb 15, 2009
Sara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 09, 2009
Lucy rated it: 3 of 5 stars
For the last few months, I have been going into my son's classroom and reading with a small group for an hour. This is exactly my kind of volunteering. We each take turns reading aloud and when the hour is up, we mark our place for the next week.

Our group, which contained five boys and myself, read The Hatchet, a book about 13 year-old Brian Robeson, who survives in the Canadian wilderness for months after the airplane he was traveling in to visit his father crashes - in large part b More...
5 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jan 14, 2008
Josh rated it: 4 of 5 stars
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...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jan 14, 2008
Matt rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 03, 2008
Michael rated it: 4 of 5 stars
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 More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Dec 10, 2010
Conwaym rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I choose to read this book because I have alot of freinds that have read it before and they said it was i really good boook to read.The book setting is in some canada woods.The charater in the book is just Brain the kid that is in the woods.He has to go through some hard time when he is in the woods.One thang is that he has to find food and in the begining it was hard for him to do that.The first starts eating barry and then starts fishing and eats that.In the book he git attack by a bear but he More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Feb 14, 2008
Ice rated it: 4 of 5 stars
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 be More...
Feb 06, 2012
Matthew rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This book is about a boy who is on a plane and The plane driver get a heart attack and the plane crashes! This boy only has a Hatchet and is alone in a big forest with no one to call and no one to help Him!!! READ THE BOOK AND SEE IF HE SURVIVE.
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 03, 2009
Jeff rated it: 3 of 5 stars
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).
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 10, 2008
Mohammad rated it: 4 of 5 stars
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.
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Sep 18, 2007
Daniel rated it: 1 of 5 stars
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, whe More...
2 comments like (5 people liked it)
Dec 07, 2011
Joe rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Somehow this boy was an encyclopedia of knowledge and whenever he had a problem he would think back to a show he watched, something he had read, or a previous experience to solve the issue at hand.

I thought the author did a great job of describing the lake area down to its true natural core, but the survival side of the story needed tuning to be more realistic and enjoyable. Also, I got tired of reading about his parents divorce and "The Secret" very quickly as that really More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
May 01, 2011
Bailey rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I LOVED IT!! I couldn't set this book down it was that good!! :)
4 comments like (2 people liked it)
Feb 11, 2011
Codys rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I chose this book because I am a edvencher kind of person and I like camping and hicking and I figered I would like it a lot. Relissic adventure. A boy named brian flying to go see his dad in a smaal plane. Nice boy that does not wont his parents to get a diforse. A boy who gets traped in the forest by himself with nothing. The boy just had been through a plane crash and he's fighting for his life. At the end they find him. I loved this book a lot because it fit with me and what I like to do and More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
May 24, 2010
Samantha added it
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
Feb 18, 2009
Carson added it
Hatchet
This book was very good even though I did not finish it. I was good about the bear and the moose but I really liked it. One of my favorite character was Brian Robeson. He is just a kid that is in a plain crash because the capstan had a hardtack so he had to fly the plain his self and when he was trying to talk to the people at the air port the radio went out so he had to wait till the gas ran out of the plain and the walk the rest of the way the reason I like the Brian Robeson beca More...