Hatchet By Gary Paulson: Book Analysis

In life people face several challenges. Some are big and some are not so crucial. But you will overcome those challenges. Just like when you are first learning to ride a bike. You will fall a numerous amount of times before you finally get the hang of it. But, once you can ride that bike without training wheels it feels amazing. Just like with reading it is boring and hard for some until you find that one book and it is like a breakthrough. This is a memory I have about reading. When I was in elementary school reading was always and sometimes still to this day challenging. But one book I read was so incredibly impactful and interesting, it made reading for me exciting and enjoyable. Up until the fifth grade, reading was boring for me. I also have dyslexia, so reading was always challenging for me. The letters in the words would switch around, my sentences would fuse together, and it would take me a long time just to read one page. I

But every night my mom would read me the book “Hatchet” by Gary Paulson it changed my whole view on reading. She would read one page and I would read the next one. We sat on the bed snuggled up and wrapped in blankets as we read the book. It was like a movie playing in my head. Hatchet consisted of so many descriptive details that it was hard not to have a painted picture in my head. Hatchet is about a 13 year old boy who was taking a plane to see his dad in Canada. In his suitcase his mom packed him his hatchet for when he and his father go out into the woods. The engine blows and the plane crashes in the middle of the Canadian forest. Everyone on the plane dies in the crash but Brian. All he has is his hatchet and a crash survival kit. He gets attacked by a moose when he goes hunting for food, his ribs are injured. He sees supplies in the water from the crash and he goes to retrieve them. While trying to retrieve the supplies he drops his hatchet and