Book Review: Hatchet

Hatchet by Gary Paulson

Hatchet is one of those children’s classics that was published just at the right time for me to miss it -- just as I graduated from high school, or, after I grew out of children’s literature and before I grew back into it:) It is a classic for a reason, and highly recommended for both boys and girls. Brian gets on a small plane to take him to spend the summer with his father in remote Canada. Brian is still reeling from his parents’ divorce, and is burdened by knowing his mother’s Secret, upon which he hotly reflects throughout the book. His mother gives him a hatchet as a gift as he boards the plane. Somewhere over the vast Canadian wilderness the pilot suffers a heart attack and the plane crash lands in a lake. Brian is injured but alive, and must get to shore and figure out how to survive with only the hatchet to use. Brian’s story and transformation are riveting, and I read the book in a single sitting. Heart-wrenching and heart-pounding, the book is a classic for a reason.