Hatchet

Reader reviewed by Dede

Hatchet is about a 13 year old boy named Brian.  He is flying to visit his father after his parents divorced and the pilot has a heart attack and they crash.  Brian must learn how to survive in the wilderness alone with nothing but the hatchet his mom gave him as a kind of novelty gift.  It is interesting to see how Brian matures in this book as he faces tough obstacles and deals with major let-downs.  There is not much more I can say about this book, it was a bit slow and boring at times, and I thought it could have done without the whole secret aspect - the big secret he was living with - as it didn't really have any effect on the story, in my opinion.  This is a good book for teens and is written very well. 

Reader reviewed by Allire

In this book Brian was on his way to see his father. His parents recently were divorced, so he was riding in a single person plane to see his dad.. However, soon the plane goes down and crashes in the thick mountains. In this book Brian has to survive using simple tools and his already attained knowledge.


I really thought that this book was boring. There were a few good parts, like when he was remembering seeing his mother kissing another man, that wasn't his father. And when he was trying to fish, but remembered that light deflects, so the fish wasn't actually where it appeared to be in the water. Other than that, I really didn't like it. We read this book as a class in sixth grade. About half of the class liked it, while the other class did not. I think that it really just depends on what types of books the reader would like. I generally like few survival books. However, if someone else liked survival books a lot, then I think that they would like this book better than I did.


Reading the book wasn't a complete waste for me. As I have said, there were a few interesting parts. And I liked how Brian didn't just have it easy. It wasn't like he crashed in the mountains, fished, hunted and lived peacefully. Instead he struggled, just like anyone else would do if they were stranded. Just because I didn't like it, doesn't mean someone else wouldn't like it.

Reader reviewed by Carter

Hatchet is a very good story and i would recomend it too anybody from fourth grade to one hundred years old. Its a classic story about a young adult (ya)who gets stranded somewhere in Canada. Boring at parts but mostly exciting and unpredictable. It also has 2 endings to think of. CW

Reader reviewed by Cheryl

This book is about a boy who is dealing with his parents' recent divorce. He is put on a small plane travelling to the northern Canadian wilderness to start his first visitation with his dad since the divorce. The pilot suddenly has a heart attack and dies while flying the plane. The plane crashes in the middle of nowhere, way off course, in the middle of a lake. The boy narrowly escapes. The rest of the book describes this boy's attempts to survive this wilderness with nothing but a small hatchett his mother had given him as a going away present.

This book is interesting, but the pacing is a little slow for my taste. It really felt like the whole book dragged on and on. Of course, that's probably how the boy felt stranded in the wilderness.

I think this book would definately appeal to many children, especially boys aged 8-12.

Reader reviewed by Erin


Hatchet is a very interesting book. It tells of a boy's struggle to survive alone in the wilderness, while trying to deal with his own problems.

Read it, it's definetly not a time waster. Classic.