HATCHET
By Gary Paulsen
This book was about a boy called Brian who was a survivor of a plane crash in northern Canada. He was going there to see his dad, since his mother had wanted a divorce. He had to survive and build things with only the help of a hatchet that his mother had given him before the crash, and his wits. Several serious and dramatic events occurred which included: getting stabbed by a porcupine, eating so many berries that he made himself sick, and trying to kill himself.
The pilot driving the plane had a heart attack and died while the plane was still flying to Canada. So brian had no one to talk to. He caught birds, fish, stole turtle or crocodile eggs and ate lots of raspberries. A tornado came to his "camp" and took away everything he had built, like his bow, arrows, shelter, food and his spear. Everything but, you guessed it, his hatchet.
He tried to get the survival pack in the plane because the plane's tail was sticking out of the lake. This ended up with his hatchet falling in the water and Brian trying several times to dive down and get it from the bottom of the lake. Luckily he succeeded eventually.
At the end, when he retrieved the survival pack from the plane, he had everything that you would need to survive. It contained lots of food, a knife, fishing gear, a medical pack, and an emergency transmitter. He left the emergency radar on without knowing but that was fortunate for him because a pilot saw it and rescued him. By the end he realized how lucky he was to be alive and to have a home and food whenever he wanted it. It was an absolutely fantastic book.
