Hatchet - Plot The book by Gary Paulsen, Hatchet, is one of the most highly rated and revered young person's stories. A thirteen-year-old boy named Brian Robeson finds himself in the survival adventure of a life time. He is initially identified as a boy that is burdened with the fact of his parents' divorce. And adding to that pain, Brian has seen his mother kissing a strange man in a station wagon. There are interesting ironies in the beginning of the book, as Brian is preparing to spend the summer in the north woods of Canada where his father (who is an engineer) is working in the oil fields. Just before Brian leaves (in a small Cessna) for Canada, his mother gives him a hatchet, as a gift, and he can't see the purpose of that hatchet at that time. But after the plane crash and being launched into a terrifyingly lonely and highly challenging experience alone in the wilderness, he finds extremely practical use for that hatchet. In fact, staying alive in the remote wilderness is an extraordinarily difficult challenge, and the book details in easy-to-read narrative exactly how this thirteen-year-old manages to stay alive.

Summary: This is not just a book about a boy in a dangerous situation; it is truly a survival story. When the plane's pilot has a heart attack and dies while the plane is in the air -- after fortuitously having shown Brian the plane's controls -- somehow Brian survives the crash and finds himself alone with little except the clothes on his back and that hatchet. Brian does not know where he is, and has not been trained in survival techniques; but for...

The plane did have a survival kit, which Brian did not know until an unlikely tornado roars across the Canadian lake (ruining his shelter) and the tail of the Cessna somehow appears above the surface; he finds it and that kit comes in handy for his survival. He had smart instincts, and realized that he needed to stay near the lake " ... because he thought the plane, even deep in the water, might show up to somebody flying over ... " (Paulsen 55). In a way this is a coming of age story because when Brian is finally rescued (he pushed a button on the survival transmitter that gave his location) he is tougher; he has grown in stature and is more confident and smarter than he was before. He shows that he can make choices and take responsibility for himself.
The Climax: After giving rescuers a chance to locate him (he inadvertently activated a GPS signal from the plane's survival kit), Brian is rescued. He is about to indulge in a meal of freeze-dried food he located in the plane. A pilot flies over Brian, "very low ... and glided down the long part of the L of the lake" (182). The plane lands on the lake, and the pilot steps ashore. "Dam. You're him, aren't you? You're that Kid ... " (184). Brian is seemingly comfortable now as a castaway and lost boy, and he, like a typical teenager -- a wise guy / smart Alek -- calls out, "Would you like something to eat?"

Favorite Section: I do like the ending and the Epilogue, but the part that had…