Title: Hatchet
Author: Gary Paulsen
Summary
While searching for books for this weeks theme that boys would like, I struggled to figure out what to book to choose from. Finding a children's book to me was easier, but young adult boys are harder to please sometimes. In the end, I kept coming back to this classic story. I remember reading this book in my youth, probably around junior high or so. We read it as a class, and this was the first book many of us were relatively interested in. I felt this book fit with the theme of books boys would like because it is through the perspective of a thirteen year old boy, and had many thrilling type concepts and adventures during the course of the book.
As I said before, the book "Hatchet" is through the perspective of a thirteen year old boy. This boy is the main character throughout the story, and for majority of the time he is the only active character. The boy's name is Brian. The story begins with Brian loading up onto a Cessna bush plane to go visit his father for the summer. I'm not super familar with air crafts, but this particulat plane was smaller and only held Brian and the pilot. Brian is traveling to see his father in Canada because he works in oil fields over there. Brian's parents are recently divorced, and this is something he is struggling to come to terms with. Brian holds resentment for the divorce, and also unbeknownst to his mother, he knows the reasoning behind the divorce. Brian saw his mother out with another man. Before leaving to go to visit his father, Brian's mother gifts Brian a hatchet which becomes a necessity during the book. While riding on the plane to visit his father, the pilot suffers a heart attack and Brian has to steer the plane. The pilot does not recover from his heart attack and very sadly passes away, Brian does his best with the aircraft but ultimately lands/crashes into a body of water. The plane sinks, but Brian is able to get off relatively safely. The next portion of the book is about Brian's survival in the wilderness while he waits for someone to come rescue his. Brian only has his hatchet that his mother gifted him to assist him. However, Brian is very resourceful and makes other weapons to help him. While stranded in the wilderness, Brian faces many scary things. He has a run in with a porcupine, and at one point is even attacked by a moose. However, Brian also has many victories of sort while out on his own. Brian makes a fire by himself to cook and keep warm, finds eggs, and learns to catch fish with his own devices. Brian winds up being stranded alone in the wilderness for a whole 54 days before he is finally rescued. The story is very edge of your seat gripping at times, and I think young boys and youth in general will become entranced with the story.
Classroom Activities
There are many activities that I think can be done with this particular book. The book itself provides many opportunities for reflective discussions that can be done as whole group activities. One whole group discussion that can be done to accompany this book would be to have students share how they would feel if they were in Brian's situation, and what they would do if they were faced with such a crisis. If I were to teach this book to a class, I would also try to incorporate some activities based off of nature and the setting that Brian had to endure while he was stranded after his plane crash. I found a great website that offered up many STEM activities that could be incorporated during or after reading this book. The website is called differentiatedteaching.com and provides five different STEM activities in alignment with this specific book. All the activities provided by the website promote student involvement and critical thinking skills. My favorite activity that it mentions is having the students create a shelter using natural resources such as sticks and leaves. I think students would find this activity to be engaging and fun. This book has also been made into a motion picture. I have not watched the movie myself, but I have seen good reviews on the movie. Having the students watch the movie for be a good conclusive activity to reading the book.
References
5 Epic STEM Activities for Hatchet Designed to Increase Engagement. (2023, July 11). https://www.differentiatedteaching.com/stem-challenges-for-hatchet/
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