Hatchet
Brian Robison, a teenage boy struggling through his parents divorce, is flying up north to stay with his dad for the summer. However, his plane crashes and he is forced to survive the Canadian wilderness. Now living in a world completely opposite of his own, he is now able to discover himself in this forsaken and misunderstood beautiful world. The story is continued in "The River" "Brian's Winter" "Brian's Return" and "The Hunt"
Stats for nerds
6recommend
11mentions
11people
2014–2026years
55% recommend45% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen.
I must have read that book over a dozen times in middle school.
- Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)
- "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen
- (other readers: sorry, I know this post is going to be a bit obnoxiously long, but I didn't want to put it on a pastebin or some other external service and potentially have it disappear if someone wanted to reference it in the future. If you're not interested please feel free to collapse this!)
I actually asked my mom to compile a list of books she could remember, because a friend had kids and was getting to the age where they were starting to read too. Here's what she came up with (note, no particular order of difficulty or maturity here):
My Father’s dragon series
Where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein
A pizza the size of the Sun
Choose your own adventure books
The Great Brain
The Boxcar Children series
Captain Underpants
Roald Dahl books: The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/The Great Glass Elevator (not as good)
My Side of the Mountain
No More Dead Dogs
The Secret Garden
Bridge to Terabithia (Deals with death, a little older)
The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe
Across five Aprils (civil war historical fiction, older)
The Broken Blade (Voyageur) & Sequel
Island of the blue dolphins
The witch of blackbird pond
Johnny Tremaine (a bit older)
The sign of the Beaver
Charlotte’s Web
Because of Winn Dixie
Tuck Everlasting (sad at end)
Ruby Holler
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Treasure Island
The Pushcart War
Maniac Magee
Rascal
Frindle
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)
Mr. Popper’s Penguins (young)
Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing (Juy Blume)
Pippi Longstocking
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (young)
A Wrinkle in Time
Moccasin Trail
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
From the Mixed Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Egypt Game
The Phantom Tollbooth (young)
Holes (little older)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School (young)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Homer Price (easy reading)
The Indian in the Cupboard
Misty of Chincoteague (series)
Aesop’s Fables (young)
The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm
Redwall series
Watership Down
(I'll throw in the Discworld series too for kids that are getting a bit older! It's probably very readable for, say, an advanced 5th grader. I was tearing through all the redwall books and the Golden Compass series at that point and Discworld is probably comparable. Golden Compass wasn't finished then and The Amber Spyglass ended up being kind of a disappointment. I know I was reading Discworld by 7th grade for sure.)
- Non-fiction:
-Papillion by Henri Charrière: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/bbd4b0ce-baad-4f04-9e98-...
-Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/112010c8-be72-4ddc-b5e5-...
-The Naked Don't Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2572756e-ab98-4376-94be-...
-Barbie & Ruth by Robin Gerber: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/69d6197f-f9dd-465f-bc3a-...
-The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen (Starts slow but the story is wild.): https://app.thestorygraph.com/browse?button=&search_term=fis...
Fiction:
-The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/abd1c172-fbba-469d-a99c-...
-Hatchet by Gary Paulson: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8a8b0f34-bdec-4e08-bad8-...
-The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (This one is kind of a rough read.): https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8a740c2e-a536-47c8-8d67-...
-Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/c906e464-dc41-4f82-9601-...
-The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/297187a2-ad88-4b2b-a453-...
-Bear Town by Fredrik Backman (It's not quite what you're looking for, but close, and really good.): https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/1e759f91-b8e7-4a7b-b10a-...
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Far and away, the best for a young person coming into adulthood. In an age appropriate manner and wording (vocab, tenses, allusions to other works, etc) Hatchet explore what it takes to mentally be an adult. Brian's near suicide and rebirth alone in the Canadian forests is a classic story in literature, and it is no where else better played for young adults than in Hatchet. Brian's personal choice to live and be self sufficient against the odds is a great lesson for that age. The epilogue is masterful as well, and I'm sure, took a lot of guts to publish as-is and not re-write.
Other great books (with amazon links) can be found here: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/06/02/the-essential-man%E...
The follow up from that blog's readers can be found here: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/05/21/fiction-for-men-as-...
Note: The linked blog focuses more on the 'classical style' in western literature and thought. By classics, I mean true classics from the Enlightenment and Greek and Roman works, not devoid of racism or sexism, sometimes in full acceptance and joy of those evils. Nonetheless, I feel most of those books are great reads, if the young person is given caution and some guidance on how to handle the differences between our forefathers' views and ours'.
EDIT: Additionally, look into language learning courses. Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/) is free and amazing (nothing beats having cousins in Italy or Mexico, though). At 14, the brain is still pretty plastic and able to learn languages a bit easier than us old'uns.
I have been amiss for not linking to the above blog's other non-fiction lists and movie lists: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books... http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/07/13/100-must-see-movies...
I'll also act like a shill here and advocate for youth organizations like the BSA. Here is a nice tool to find a troop near you :http://www.scouting.org/LocalCouncilLocator.aspx . I know I may get some flak from HN here for BSA advocacy, but I had a great time on the road to Eagle and the Scouts are updating. Also, many councils are in open defiance of the policies (naming names is hard to do here, it is necessarily kept mum). Please, give them the time they need.
