I usually don’t blog about books that I didn’t love. Hatchet falls into this category, but there are things wanted to point out. Before I do, let’s just say what we’re all thinking: The cover isn’t great. If it hadn’t been recommended by a friend, I never would’ve given it a chance. Cover aside, here’s what I wanted to say:

1) It’s a book for boys.  Gary Paulsen has been a big contributor to boy’s fiction. I did just a little reading about the man, and he’s fascinating. He would make a great research/biography topic for an 11-13 year old boy’s school project.

2) Consider the audiobook: I listened to this book in my car on CD. The friend who recommended it to me had read it aloud, as a family (a three-boy family, god bless her.)   It would be perfect for a long car ride with the family….and it really isn’t that long, maybe 2 hours.

Summary from Publisher’s Weekly:
When the pilot of a small, two-person plane has a heart attack and dies, Brian has to crash land in the forest of a Canadian wilderness. He has little time to realize how alone he is, because he is so busy just trying to survive. And learning to survive, to plan on food not just for a day but until and if he is rescued, only begins when he stops pitying himself and understands that no one can help him. He is on his own, without his divorced father, whom he was to visit, or his mother, whom Brian saw kissing another man before the divorce. This is a heart-stopping story: it seems that at every moment Brian is forced to face a life-and-death decision…

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