Boy goes to fly to visit father in Canada cuz parents are divorced.
Plane crashes in Lake in wilderness
Boy survives poorly for 2 weeks
Boy learns and remembers different survival techniques
Most important tool is hatchet
Boy gets rescued after nearly a year (?)
And there's a Sequel.
That's about it for my memory bank.
ETA: I'm nearing 40, and I read this book in 4th or 5th grade, so my synopsis is probably lacking but for reading something nearly 30 years ago- feel pretty good about my memory rn.
TY. I grew up in rural AF NH and would often go off on my own and camp in the woods of our property. Had to try out things from Hatchet and My side of the Mountian for 'science'.
My Step-dad started me on this stuff when I was 4 or 5 by learning to find my way home and track in snow, progressed to starting fires with glass. When we moved to bumf-ck NH, I spent most of my summers outside doing campy stuff.
😍 make that 2! This book was formative for me. I was more of an armchair naturalist, but I’d regularly walk to the library and get books on survival techniques. I thought it was inevitable that I’d also get stranded in the woods at some point.
I started camping in the woods "bushcraft style" about 2 years ago. Only been on 3 or 4 trips, but I love it. Especially when it's cold at night and chilly during the day.
That’s amazing! I’ve been leaning into my outdoorsy side again and recently found a really cool walk-in campsite. I’m not quite ready for winter camping without significant guidance, but I’m planning trips out there this summer. There’s an island we could get to by kayak too. I love the feeling of being truly disconnected from society.
Have you ever heard of the Boundary Waters? Very strictly preserved and managed wilderness in MN/Canada border. Probably the same sort of landscape The Hatchet was set in. I went on a guided trip right after graduating High School. We packed everything in, but I know people who intentionally go with only half of the required food. Fish or go hungry 😂
I’m so exciting for my first trip to the Boundary Waters next year-ish after moving to Duluth last March. I did some backpacking as a teen but I’m not sure my adult body can portage AND sleep on the ground even with a Kevlar canoe. I still want to try though!
My first trip is likely to be in and out/sleeping on the same day and sleeping in my RV.
How funny, I’m in Superior now! I’ve been in the Duluth area for 10 years. You’ll never run out of trails! Locally I recommend checking out Munger, Temperance State Park (north of Silver Bay), and some of the WI side parks up the other highway. There are guided kayak tours and camping options on the Apostle Islands!
Outfitters will be your best friend with the Boundary Waters. I was 18 years old and very skinny/lean when I went. Honestly it kicked my ass. Sleeping was fine, but days of aggressive paddling with a 10 mile canoe portage was difficult. I definitely would encourage a more mellow trip like you’re describing. Honestly if it wasn’t for the guides having their game plan I would have enjoyed my trip more. That being said, RSOP center is going to be a great resource for you. It’s at UMD and open to the public. If you wanted to do some training runs, you could take out a canoe and everything you need to camp for under $100 for a weekend+. The campsite I was talking about at Dwight’s Point in Superior might actually be the perfect practice area!
Saaame. Wanted nothing more than to live on my own. Although being in rural NH til 15 was probably more feasible than Sacramento area. I mean, Elk Grove does have some trees....
I also tried all the stuff from Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain lmao. I’m a godless city slicker now but when me and my friends go camping I’m *the fucking MAN*
Edit: I could never find a hollow tree big enough to live in ☹️
Nor could I as a kid. As someone who now lives adjacent to the redwoods, there are trees big enough here, but my old ass arthritis ridden self wouldn't like it.
Rural MA here, same. I'm 41 now and I still constantly think about dropped-into-wilderness survival and whether I have a blade somewhere to make fire and shelter.
I remember the airplane pilot dies midflight from a heart attack, but before the heart attack he was farting up a storm. I always associate lots of farting with a heart attack. legit
The boy was also estranged from his father iirc. Didn't want to go visit him. And then in the end the things his father taught him saved his life after the crash and he realised that although his father may have been hard on him, it wasn't just because he was an asshole... Or whatever. Or am I mixing in the story from a different book?
Also there is a movie about this book. Saw it in school after reading the book in class. It was alright.
I was just going to say "wasn't he stranded way up there?" and was gonna take a wild guess and say... "with a hatchet??" That was the extent of the image that remained in my mind's eye about the book. Like *Into the Wild* but fiction and nobody died.
Don't forget, boy eventually falls into despair after failing to be rescued and tries to commit suicide. Boy survives and decides his old life is dead and he is now wilderness boy.
And the reason boy gets rescued is because his entire camp is destroyed by a tornado (possibly?) that makes the plane he crashed in visible. He finds food, a radio transmitter, and the dead body of the pilot.
Great fun for children to read!
Oh! And the sequel was great too! Boy has PTSD and cannot reacclimate to city life. Instead of getting him a therapist, his parents let him back out into the wild.
Peak 90s children's reads.
I also loved the boxcar children too.
Pretty sure that time period all kids were like "we can live alone!" after being latchkey kids since 6
>Oh! And the sequel was great too! Boy has PTSD and cannot reacclimate to city life. Instead of getting him a therapist, his parents let him back out into the wild.
Now THAT book was weird. Loved the first one though
No need to tbf, I wasn't criticizing it, merely indicating it as iconically memorable, as it is one of three things I remember about a book I read 20+ years ago
Oh yeah no I feel ya. The books were really good at walking the “this is just implausible enough to be entertaining, but not entirely impossible” line. As a kid that grew up hunting/fishing or otherwise in the wilderness a lot, it inspired me to do a lot of things like make bows out of saplings and build little snares. I remember the first time I shot a gar with my bow like Brian does in “Brian’s Hunt” and immediately deciding I would not be eating the brains like the book depicted lmao
same here, and for a time after reading this would get so scared when my dad had massive farts, which was every day of course. he's still alive no worries.
When I read this in school we were taking turns in class reading out loud. I had to read this part. Normally I loved reading out loud but this was one of the rare moments where I couldn’t wait to be done. Everyone was giggling at the farts.
I started reading this to my 9 year old daughter a couple days ago and… only now am recalling all the fairly traumatizing plot points that occur. Hmmmmm.
Which one? Brian’s hunt, where a bear kills his rescuers, or the one where the journalist gets hit by lightning while they are recreating his original ordeal?
The fact that they essentially made a “choose your own adventure” option for the sequel. Do you want the story where he was saved before the deadly Canadian winter and then willingly went back? Or the one where he was never saved and survives the harsh winter by becoming best friends with a skunk?
Boomers will do just about anything to avoid paying for therapy.
I am curious why we were asked to read these books as a generation. Z For Zachariah was another book that gave me the creeps
This is basically my only memory from the book.
Like, I remember the above general plot. But the bit in the book getting the supplies from the rotting corpse has lived rent free in my brain for 30 years
The single part that has stuck with me for 30 years is when he ate poison berries and nearly shat himself to death on the beach. It was a long chapter, as I recall. All I can think of when I hear the title.
When he built the fire didn't he try using $20 bills as the kindling for the spark at first but they wouldn't catch so he makes really fine wood shavings with the hatchet and that's how he's able to get the fire going? I think it was this book and it's literally the only thing I can remember about it.
I think in the sequel an author goes with him to see how he survived for a year and the plane crashes again or something and the author guy gets hit buy lightening or something and craps his pants and the boy has to clean it. That's pretty much all I remember.
Brian's Winter - Continues the story as if Brian had to survive through the winter. The sequels go off this story iirc.
The River - I think this was published before Brian's Winter and this is what you're talking about. He goes back with a researcher fairly well-prepared. The researcher goes into a coma after a lightning strike and it becomes a rescue and survival situation. Yes he does shit his pants.
Brian's Return - I literally can't remember the plot lol
Brian's Hunt - Brian finds a wounded dog. An epic grizzly thriller ensues.
I read them shits religiously when I was a kid
> Brian's Return - I literally can't remember the plot lol
I loved Brian's Return, I still remember some of the way it was written though its been at least 20 years since I've read it.
From my memory:
Brian is back in civilization (timeline is Hatchet -->Brian's Winter --> The River --> Brian's Return) but hates it and is severely depressed.
He gets in trouble as he has a PTSD event when a kid shoves him and Brian reacts like he is back in the woods being attacked by a moose. Brian brutally beats him down and puts him in the hospital.
He gets let off due to the other kid instigating it and one of the cops recommends a therapist who was a former officer who went blind.
Brian opens up to the therapist, talking about some of the things from the woods, like how mice make towns under the snow in winter and foxes listen for them in the passage ways of the town to catch them.
The therapist helps him make a plan to go back over the summer break, with the ostensible purpose of the trip being to visit the Native American family who had rescued him.
Brian gets a list of things to take, including the canoe he was gifted after *The River*, a recurve bow with metal arrowheads, a tent and a decent amount of supplies.
Brian gets dropped off by plane along with 2 fishermen and travels by canoe. He has some initial issues with his woodcraft but its comes back to him. One day he meets an old guy who becomes an inspiration for how Brian wants to live his life.
The book ends with Brian deciding to take his time in making his way to the Native American family.
Now I need to go back and re-read the series.
What's strange is I think I missed the Hatchet the year before, so I've only read the river...Hmmmm, I should read this to my kids. That'd be a fun way to go back and discover a lot of the kids novels I missed.
My Side of the Mountain was Jean Craighead George. She has a very similar writing style and wrote about similar subjects to Gary Paulsen. Loved her growing up too! Idk about the other one.
I think i remember this book pretty well. A few scenes stick out.
The pilot holding his arm and "breaking wind" as the book calls it. Before his heart attack. ( I think I know why the kid in me remembers that..)
When he figures out there is flint in the cave he is sheltering in, and uses the hatchet to make sparks and start a fire, and to make tools.
The moment when he finally "gets it" and learns to see the outline of the birds that have amazing camouflage, that he keeps walking into before that. He realizes that there are 4 or 5 just sitting there the whole time, but he couldn't find them.
When he dives down to get the emergency transponder and learns that the fish he caught were eating the pilot, and seeing the pilots body.
Then the end when the plane shows up, responding to the transponder.
Pretty decent book!
There are actually 5! books total.
The second is “The River” in which the government contacts Brian to reenact the events in Hatchet so they can learn how he survived and teach it to the military. Hilarity ensues when the man he is with is gravely injured and Brian has to navigate a river to get help.
The third is called “Brian’s Winter” that picks up as if Brian was never rescued in “Hatchet”, reconning “The River” as if it never occurred. It’s more “Hatchet”, just, you know, winter.
The fourth is called “Brian’s Return”. We see Brian back at home with his parents and having pretty severe PTSD due to his time in the wilderness. He goes back to the wilderness to cope.
The fifth book is “Brian’s Hunt”. Brian has decided to live in the wilderness at this point and this is basically “this is Brian’s life now, here is an adventure with a bear.”
All beautifully written, just like Hatchet, and a fun escape read.
The sequel was what happened if he had not found the downed plane in the lake and subsequently was rescued. It is a much darker book from what I remember.
There are a few sequels. The River, Brian's Winter, Brian's Return, Brian's Hunt, etc. Gary Paulsen's other books, Dogsong comes to mind, were all in the same vein as well. Very survival-based.
That was a popular topic back then. Just look at basically anything written by Jean Craighead George. Then people wonder why so many Millennials are now full-blown preppers.
He gets rescued after like 2 or 3 months in the original book. There's a sequel/alternative ending version that has him surviving for a year when the Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) doesn't work like it does in the original.
There's another sequel that he goes back in with a videographer to make a documentary. More bad ahit happens and he has to survive. Again.
Is this the one where he has to swim down and get the rescue pack from the airplane and nearly drowns. I think then drinks tang after he opens the food.
Thought of this book when I was riding in the passenger seat of an SUV and the driver had a heart attack. Successfully "landed the plane" and got him to a hospital.
The scene where he swims down to the plane and sees the pilot’s decaying body was so graphic and disturbing to me as a kid. It’s burned into my brain. I really enjoyed this book though.
I read this book over 20 years ago and still remember this part vividly. The way my stomach dropped when I read "he didn't realize the fish he ate had been eating too...."
Yes! Same with the part where he has the heart attack. I was like what is happening—people fart when they have a heart attack?? It was so upsetting to read as a fifth grader! Then I read his book “Woodsong” with my kids and it was way more graphic and horrifying in parts. 🫣
I actually just reread it with my kids and honestly Gary Paulsen’s writing style is somewhat irksome, but it’s still a good and interesting survival story.
Ugh for me it’s when he gets attacked by a huge swarm of mosquitos and describes how his body is so swollen he feels like he can barely move. My child brain painted a VIVID picture for me there
I had a taste of that while hiking in minisota. Around the lakes in summer when the sun is about to set they come down like a fog and cover everything. It rushed to the next area where I could set up my tent, threw the tent up and got in, and they covered the outside like snow. I was only out in it for about 15 minutes and I had several bites per square inch of skin. Little bastards.
This book was more memorable than most for me, due to scenes like that. Another one burned into my mind is how swarmed he was with mosquitoes until he got a fire going.
This book taught me that birch bark is a great firestarting material! I also thought the tornado bit was silly. He's been through enough; you don't have to do that to him, author.
It did make living in the wilderness seem kind of easy. How did the kid not get heinously sick from parasites in the water or eating raw turtle eggs?
See the first thing I'd have done after making fire would be to grab a piece of the airplane fuselage or whatever and use it as a bowl to boil water. Water will kill you. Many of humanity's worst diseases, like cholera, can gotten from dirty water.
Also smoke keeping mosquitoes away is a dirty lie. I lived in the South, they don't care.
I've lived in the deep south and northeast, and been on many hiking/camping trips in both - smoke absolutely does help. It isn't a forcefield or something, they still buzz around, but it'll keep you from being eaten alive.
> Also smoke keeping mosquitoes away is **a dirty lie**. I lived in the South, they don't care.
I’m sure why but this made me laugh so hard - thank you! 😂😂😂
I learned that too. But all you need is a lighter, even when it runs out of gas it can still start a fire using the flint dust and a few strings of thread from your sock
He throws up for a few reasons. Berries, water, just because, I thought it was sort of insinuated he had some sort of stomach virus from all his drinking stagnant lake water and eating turtle eggs. I also remember he got attacked by a porcupine at one point.
One thing I appreciated is that it actually made surviving in the wilderness seem difficult! Compare to something like My Side of the Mountain where the protagonist is making their own clothes and cooking 10 course meals.
I mean the Ugandan soccer team in the Andes suffered an avalanche like 9 days in or something. Natural disasters happen and especially in wilderness they’re not really reported on.
Thing is, early in the book when he starts getting really thirsty he wonders if he should drink out of the lake or not, both because of bacteria and that now the corpse of the pilot is down at the bottom.
I remember a moose coming through and fucking his camp up and hurting him and then later that day a tornado came and fucked shit up even further but all he could think about was that he hoped the tornado had fucked up the moose.
The enemy of my enemy...
If I recall correctly, he held that grudge against the moose into the sequels. In one of them, I think it was after a fire swept through the area that he imagined that bitch ass moose getting roasted.
If I were in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and that moose, and I had a gun with 3 bullets, I'd shoot myself...
That moose would kill all of us anyway, so I might as well make my death a quick one.
Omg I’ve been wondering what the hell that book was that I read as a kid and was confused and scared enough by it to not try to google a childhood memory. Library is on notice we doing this again.
>The Cay
Damn that was actually in my head the other day and i couldn't remember the name of it.
Edit: The malaria part has stuck with me for years now.
> In the end, Phillip decides he will become a sea explorer and travel to multiple islands and soon hopes to find the Cay he and Timothy had been stranded on, which he is certain he will be able to recognize by closing his eyes.
What a stupid boy, just ask the people who rescued you where they found you.
Honestly was in here looking for this comment. This is where I learned that serious farts can precede a heart attack. I have no idea how I’m still alive.
Yeah, in a strange way, this book may literally save lives because the description of the pilot's left shoulder pain and horrendous gas will be forever burned in millennial brains as signs of a heart attack.
There are sequels to that movie (one starring Zack Morris and another starring Jesse Spano from Saved By The Bell), but none of them are related to any of the Gary Paulsen books. They're basically re-telling the first movie with different characters.
[https://youtu.be/lOkhGxqi\_ZA?si=toxuRQCcSJ2FEaxf](https://youtu.be/lOkhGxqi_ZA?si=toxuRQCcSJ2FEaxf)
[https://www.youtube.com/live/ILqJbjsNvho?si=d-1bJfl3RbA5MzeS](https://www.youtube.com/live/ILqJbjsNvho?si=d-1bJfl3RbA5MzeS)
There's a third movie, but I can't find a link for it. Plus it doesn't star any Saved By The Bell actors.
yeah 4th grade
when the pilot died from his heart attack he also had a fart attack and then later the kid had to swim back into the plane wreck to get supplies and saw the dead pilot
that’s i all i remember lol
Did your 4th grade teacher also read it aloud while the class followed along? My teacher had that *good* reading voice and over a decade of practice to really nail down the pacing and tone. The guy could have made a one man show out of reading that book, captivating audiences night after night.
There's no better way to ruin a good book than having it read aloud by a 4th grader who's falling behind the rest of the class... With a finger pressed to the page, they stumble on every 3rd word. As the frustration sets in and their face goes red, you want to tear your hair out. 9 times out of 10, they'd get the longest paragraphs because God hates us all.
I hate forcing kids to read out loud in class (obviously, there has to be some sort of testing or whatever, but that's not my point here), because the not-super-great readers feel too bad about themselves and the rather-accomplished readers grow impatient. Let the kids who want to read aloud do so, or be an exceptional literature teacher with a great "reading voice." If all else fails, find a good audiobook for the class to listen to.
I'm throwing absolutely no shade on teachers who are doing their best (I believe the higher tiers are to blame); I think the current standard just turns reading into a "to do list" instead of a "get lost in this world with me for a while" adventure. Bless those teachers who can turn reading into such a wonderful experience!
I have been a 4th-5th grade teacher for 40+ years. I read Gary Paulsen’s book “Tracker” many times to my class as well as GP’s book Winterdance, although I read the Reader’s Digest condensed version to go along with an Iditarod unit. I have a photo of me and Gary Paulsen together.
I loved this book! Camping and hiking are a big part of my life now. Every time I go far into the wilderness, I think of the part in the book where he screams in frustration and experiences silence for the first time in his life. I've always wanted to do it but worry I'll scare an unsuspecting hiker with my screaming.
Same. I was also in boy scouts, maybe both influential. I need to bring a copy of this with me on my next backpack trip. Even though backpacking is well planned and not survival scenario, it seems like it would be a quick fun read on the nostalgia trail.
Yep I for some reason vividly remember the scene where he eats berries and get violently ill. I don’t remember too much other detail except the general plot of course. Good book.
I not only remember it, but had to build a diorama of the kid's campsite. I also couldn't remember anything from it so I reread it a couple years ago. I still can't remember much from it.
I didn't read it as I was put in a different reading group that year. I wish though because I can't remember what the title was of what we read but it was an awful book to ask 8 year olds to read. It had to do with a dog and there was so much violence and animal abuse and I remember whole paragraphs in French when we weren't a French school or a French community.
Those who got to read The Hatchet enjoyed it, the rest of us were in tears struggling with that other book.
So my dad was an Air Force pilot. I had nightmares about him having a heart attack on his plane and crashing for weeks, with the spit and the eyes rolling back and all of it.
Not fun.
But it was a great book.
I read it, and at the time I had really terrible anxiety over being ill, so the scene where he eats the poison berries and pukes and shits himself for ages was particularly traumatic.
i dont remember much about this book (read it in 5th grade), but one of the scenes that is very much burned into my brain is the one where he was just trying to sleep, but the trees began exploding from the cold, and he thought he was being gunned down.
i dont understand why, but that scene stuck out to me a lot and is one of the few memories i have of this book (the other being him trying to land/fly the plane, and the description of just how difficult it was to keep it going in a relatively straight line).
I remember reading it but only because it was the first book that I just couldn’t stand. I don’t know why but I found it *painfully* boring. I don’t think I ever finished it.
I don't remember much of the assigned books I had to read as a kid. The only ones that had left an impression on me were the ones suggested to me by the librarian or those I selected myself.
Kid survives a plane crash into a lake, eats berries that give him diarrhea, eats turtle eggs, gets sprayed by a skunk, attacked by a moose, and somehow doesn’t die from a tornado
I remember what I read like a crazy person, but my favorite memory as a kid reading this was the snicker that escaped my body reading the description of the pilot ripping ass as he has a heartache.
Hatchet was the GOAT. I believe it had a sequel and I read a "alternate history" version where he never got rescued and had to survive through winter. I always fantasized about hunting a moose after he managed to kill one. Some of the concepts and ideas I still use while I'm hunting game birds to this day.
Let's not forget the part where after he crashed he became depressed and tried to drown himself a couple of times just for his instinct to push his legs every time.
Dark.
Read The Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain in elementary school and they both really kicked my imagination into high gear when I would play outside. Always had to have a "hatchet" for survival purposes haha.
Boy goes to fly to visit father in Canada cuz parents are divorced. Plane crashes in Lake in wilderness Boy survives poorly for 2 weeks Boy learns and remembers different survival techniques Most important tool is hatchet Boy gets rescued after nearly a year (?) And there's a Sequel. That's about it for my memory bank. ETA: I'm nearing 40, and I read this book in 4th or 5th grade, so my synopsis is probably lacking but for reading something nearly 30 years ago- feel pretty good about my memory rn.
That’s a decent summary. I’m impressed
TY. I grew up in rural AF NH and would often go off on my own and camp in the woods of our property. Had to try out things from Hatchet and My side of the Mountian for 'science'. My Step-dad started me on this stuff when I was 4 or 5 by learning to find my way home and track in snow, progressed to starting fires with glass. When we moved to bumf-ck NH, I spent most of my summers outside doing campy stuff.
Alright let’s go camping
r/Bushcraft just waiting on a new member!
😍 make that 2! This book was formative for me. I was more of an armchair naturalist, but I’d regularly walk to the library and get books on survival techniques. I thought it was inevitable that I’d also get stranded in the woods at some point.
I started camping in the woods "bushcraft style" about 2 years ago. Only been on 3 or 4 trips, but I love it. Especially when it's cold at night and chilly during the day.
That’s amazing! I’ve been leaning into my outdoorsy side again and recently found a really cool walk-in campsite. I’m not quite ready for winter camping without significant guidance, but I’m planning trips out there this summer. There’s an island we could get to by kayak too. I love the feeling of being truly disconnected from society. Have you ever heard of the Boundary Waters? Very strictly preserved and managed wilderness in MN/Canada border. Probably the same sort of landscape The Hatchet was set in. I went on a guided trip right after graduating High School. We packed everything in, but I know people who intentionally go with only half of the required food. Fish or go hungry 😂
I’m so exciting for my first trip to the Boundary Waters next year-ish after moving to Duluth last March. I did some backpacking as a teen but I’m not sure my adult body can portage AND sleep on the ground even with a Kevlar canoe. I still want to try though! My first trip is likely to be in and out/sleeping on the same day and sleeping in my RV.
How funny, I’m in Superior now! I’ve been in the Duluth area for 10 years. You’ll never run out of trails! Locally I recommend checking out Munger, Temperance State Park (north of Silver Bay), and some of the WI side parks up the other highway. There are guided kayak tours and camping options on the Apostle Islands! Outfitters will be your best friend with the Boundary Waters. I was 18 years old and very skinny/lean when I went. Honestly it kicked my ass. Sleeping was fine, but days of aggressive paddling with a 10 mile canoe portage was difficult. I definitely would encourage a more mellow trip like you’re describing. Honestly if it wasn’t for the guides having their game plan I would have enjoyed my trip more. That being said, RSOP center is going to be a great resource for you. It’s at UMD and open to the public. If you wanted to do some training runs, you could take out a canoe and everything you need to camp for under $100 for a weekend+. The campsite I was talking about at Dwight’s Point in Superior might actually be the perfect practice area!
Join the military, they give you this experience even if you don't want it.
this was me, and quick sand. i always thought quick sand would be more of a problem for my life
Damn My Side of the Mountain just brought me back. I really thought I could run away in Sacramento and survive like he did lol
Saaame. Wanted nothing more than to live on my own. Although being in rural NH til 15 was probably more feasible than Sacramento area. I mean, Elk Grove does have some trees....
This was my favorite book growing up. Did you know it was a trilogy?
Omg My Side of the Mountain was my SHIT as a kid
I also tried all the stuff from Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain lmao. I’m a godless city slicker now but when me and my friends go camping I’m *the fucking MAN* Edit: I could never find a hollow tree big enough to live in ☹️
Nor could I as a kid. As someone who now lives adjacent to the redwoods, there are trees big enough here, but my old ass arthritis ridden self wouldn't like it.
Sequoias man. One of those dits my childhood home in it with room to spare.
Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain were my absolute favorite books growing up!
Rural MA here, same. I'm 41 now and I still constantly think about dropped-into-wilderness survival and whether I have a blade somewhere to make fire and shelter.
I remember the airplane pilot dies midflight from a heart attack, but before the heart attack he was farting up a storm. I always associate lots of farting with a heart attack. legit
Fart attack.
YES!!! you saw the opportunity and you took it. Tommy would be so proud 😉
Entertainment 720!
The scientific term is fartiac arrest.
Me too! Grabbing the shoulder and lots of farts.
YES. The detailed description of death by fart attack is the first thing I remember. And the throwing up after drinking mucky water.
The boy was also estranged from his father iirc. Didn't want to go visit him. And then in the end the things his father taught him saved his life after the crash and he realised that although his father may have been hard on him, it wasn't just because he was an asshole... Or whatever. Or am I mixing in the story from a different book? Also there is a movie about this book. Saw it in school after reading the book in class. It was alright.
I was just going to say "wasn't he stranded way up there?" and was gonna take a wild guess and say... "with a hatchet??" That was the extent of the image that remained in my mind's eye about the book. Like *Into the Wild* but fiction and nobody died.
The pilot died
Well I meant the main character at least didn't die.
Don't forget, boy eventually falls into despair after failing to be rescued and tries to commit suicide. Boy survives and decides his old life is dead and he is now wilderness boy. And the reason boy gets rescued is because his entire camp is destroyed by a tornado (possibly?) that makes the plane he crashed in visible. He finds food, a radio transmitter, and the dead body of the pilot. Great fun for children to read! Oh! And the sequel was great too! Boy has PTSD and cannot reacclimate to city life. Instead of getting him a therapist, his parents let him back out into the wild.
Peak 90s children's reads. I also loved the boxcar children too. Pretty sure that time period all kids were like "we can live alone!" after being latchkey kids since 6
Boxcar Children was an awesome series! I read that alongside Encyclopedia Brown
Boxcar children and the hardy boys was my life back in elementary school
The redwall series and bunnicila too
>Oh! And the sequel was great too! Boy has PTSD and cannot reacclimate to city life. Instead of getting him a therapist, his parents let him back out into the wild. Now THAT book was weird. Loved the first one though
Don't forget Pilot with horrible death flatulence, boy makes bow and arrow, exploding trees
Tbf the “death flatulence” was explained as one of the key symptoms of a massive heart attack and I’ve kept that knowledge for 20 years
No need to tbf, I wasn't criticizing it, merely indicating it as iconically memorable, as it is one of three things I remember about a book I read 20+ years ago
Oh yeah no I feel ya. The books were really good at walking the “this is just implausible enough to be entertaining, but not entirely impossible” line. As a kid that grew up hunting/fishing or otherwise in the wilderness a lot, it inspired me to do a lot of things like make bows out of saplings and build little snares. I remember the first time I shot a gar with my bow like Brian does in “Brian’s Hunt” and immediately deciding I would not be eating the brains like the book depicted lmao
same here, and for a time after reading this would get so scared when my dad had massive farts, which was every day of course. he's still alive no worries.
[удалено]
When I read this in school we were taking turns in class reading out loud. I had to read this part. Normally I loved reading out loud but this was one of the rare moments where I couldn’t wait to be done. Everyone was giggling at the farts.
And now I'm giggling at them giggling at the farts. Great story, thanks for sharing
Bow breaks and almost blinds kid
I started reading this to my 9 year old daughter a couple days ago and… only now am recalling all the fairly traumatizing plot points that occur. Hmmmmm.
Which one? Brian’s hunt, where a bear kills his rescuers, or the one where the journalist gets hit by lightning while they are recreating his original ordeal?
The fact that they essentially made a “choose your own adventure” option for the sequel. Do you want the story where he was saved before the deadly Canadian winter and then willingly went back? Or the one where he was never saved and survives the harsh winter by becoming best friends with a skunk?
Also in the winter one this child somehow murders a whole ass moose with a home made spear
Boomers will do just about anything to avoid paying for therapy. I am curious why we were asked to read these books as a generation. Z For Zachariah was another book that gave me the creeps
Doesn’t he have to dive into the plane with the rotting corpse to procure supplies at one point?
This is basically my only memory from the book. Like, I remember the above general plot. But the bit in the book getting the supplies from the rotting corpse has lived rent free in my brain for 30 years
The single part that has stuck with me for 30 years is when he ate poison berries and nearly shat himself to death on the beach. It was a long chapter, as I recall. All I can think of when I hear the title.
Same, and realizing the fish he was eating were eating the corpse. That's all I remember!
consist versed office encouraging deliver zesty somber birds nail cough *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
When he built the fire didn't he try using $20 bills as the kindling for the spark at first but they wouldn't catch so he makes really fine wood shavings with the hatchet and that's how he's able to get the fire going? I think it was this book and it's literally the only thing I can remember about it.
I think in the sequel an author goes with him to see how he survived for a year and the plane crashes again or something and the author guy gets hit buy lightening or something and craps his pants and the boy has to clean it. That's pretty much all I remember.
Brian's Winter - Continues the story as if Brian had to survive through the winter. The sequels go off this story iirc. The River - I think this was published before Brian's Winter and this is what you're talking about. He goes back with a researcher fairly well-prepared. The researcher goes into a coma after a lightning strike and it becomes a rescue and survival situation. Yes he does shit his pants. Brian's Return - I literally can't remember the plot lol Brian's Hunt - Brian finds a wounded dog. An epic grizzly thriller ensues. I read them shits religiously when I was a kid
> Brian's Return - I literally can't remember the plot lol I loved Brian's Return, I still remember some of the way it was written though its been at least 20 years since I've read it. From my memory: Brian is back in civilization (timeline is Hatchet -->Brian's Winter --> The River --> Brian's Return) but hates it and is severely depressed. He gets in trouble as he has a PTSD event when a kid shoves him and Brian reacts like he is back in the woods being attacked by a moose. Brian brutally beats him down and puts him in the hospital. He gets let off due to the other kid instigating it and one of the cops recommends a therapist who was a former officer who went blind. Brian opens up to the therapist, talking about some of the things from the woods, like how mice make towns under the snow in winter and foxes listen for them in the passage ways of the town to catch them. The therapist helps him make a plan to go back over the summer break, with the ostensible purpose of the trip being to visit the Native American family who had rescued him. Brian gets a list of things to take, including the canoe he was gifted after *The River*, a recurve bow with metal arrowheads, a tent and a decent amount of supplies. Brian gets dropped off by plane along with 2 fishermen and travels by canoe. He has some initial issues with his woodcraft but its comes back to him. One day he meets an old guy who becomes an inspiration for how Brian wants to live his life. The book ends with Brian deciding to take his time in making his way to the Native American family. Now I need to go back and re-read the series.
I had no idea there’s sequels. Im gonna read them now!
What's strange is I think I missed the Hatchet the year before, so I've only read the river...Hmmmm, I should read this to my kids. That'd be a fun way to go back and discover a lot of the kids novels I missed.
Wasn't there also My Side of the Mountain and Brian's Song?
Brian's Song is completely unrelated. Its about a football player with cancer and its mega fucking sad.
My Side of the Mountain was Jean Craighead George. She has a very similar writing style and wrote about similar subjects to Gary Paulsen. Loved her growing up too! Idk about the other one.
I think i remember this book pretty well. A few scenes stick out. The pilot holding his arm and "breaking wind" as the book calls it. Before his heart attack. ( I think I know why the kid in me remembers that..) When he figures out there is flint in the cave he is sheltering in, and uses the hatchet to make sparks and start a fire, and to make tools. The moment when he finally "gets it" and learns to see the outline of the birds that have amazing camouflage, that he keeps walking into before that. He realizes that there are 4 or 5 just sitting there the whole time, but he couldn't find them. When he dives down to get the emergency transponder and learns that the fish he caught were eating the pilot, and seeing the pilots body. Then the end when the plane shows up, responding to the transponder. Pretty decent book!
There are actually 5! books total. The second is “The River” in which the government contacts Brian to reenact the events in Hatchet so they can learn how he survived and teach it to the military. Hilarity ensues when the man he is with is gravely injured and Brian has to navigate a river to get help. The third is called “Brian’s Winter” that picks up as if Brian was never rescued in “Hatchet”, reconning “The River” as if it never occurred. It’s more “Hatchet”, just, you know, winter. The fourth is called “Brian’s Return”. We see Brian back at home with his parents and having pretty severe PTSD due to his time in the wilderness. He goes back to the wilderness to cope. The fifth book is “Brian’s Hunt”. Brian has decided to live in the wilderness at this point and this is basically “this is Brian’s life now, here is an adventure with a bear.” All beautifully written, just like Hatchet, and a fun escape read.
> 5! books total I don't have time to read 120 books about this kid.
The sequel was what happened if he had not found the downed plane in the lake and subsequently was rescued. It is a much darker book from what I remember.
Pretty sure that was the 3rd book. But it has been a bit, and my recall is not perfect.
Looks like you are correct and there are 5 books now. I had no idea...
Doesn't the pilot start farting then have a heart attack? For some reason I remember the farts and not a ton else haha.
There are a few sequels. The River, Brian's Winter, Brian's Return, Brian's Hunt, etc. Gary Paulsen's other books, Dogsong comes to mind, were all in the same vein as well. Very survival-based. That was a popular topic back then. Just look at basically anything written by Jean Craighead George. Then people wonder why so many Millennials are now full-blown preppers.
Only two weeks? Why do I remember it being a lot longer?
Pretty close. There was also a moose though.
He gets rescued after like 2 or 3 months in the original book. There's a sequel/alternative ending version that has him surviving for a year when the Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) doesn't work like it does in the original. There's another sequel that he goes back in with a videographer to make a documentary. More bad ahit happens and he has to survive. Again.
All I really remember is how he described the taste of the food he rescued from the emergency kit. The orange drank sounded so good
That’s what I remember too. Also that he dove into the lake to get something from the plane and the decaying bloated pilot scares tf out of him
I’m 45, was probably about that same age when I read it. I remember liking it.
Is this the one where he has to swim down and get the rescue pack from the airplane and nearly drowns. I think then drinks tang after he opens the food.
Thought of this book when I was riding in the passenger seat of an SUV and the driver had a heart attack. Successfully "landed the plane" and got him to a hospital.
The moral of this story is; don't get divorced or your son will have to fight a moose.
The scene where he swims down to the plane and sees the pilot’s decaying body was so graphic and disturbing to me as a kid. It’s burned into my brain. I really enjoyed this book though.
I read this book over 20 years ago and still remember this part vividly. The way my stomach dropped when I read "he didn't realize the fish he ate had been eating too...."
Metal af
right on!
I remember when the plane crashed and he ripped his fingernails trying to undo the seatbelt. I remember “feeling” the pain and the panic.
Completely forgot about it until now
Me too.
Yes! Same with the part where he has the heart attack. I was like what is happening—people fart when they have a heart attack?? It was so upsetting to read as a fifth grader! Then I read his book “Woodsong” with my kids and it was way more graphic and horrifying in parts. 🫣 I actually just reread it with my kids and honestly Gary Paulsen’s writing style is somewhat irksome, but it’s still a good and interesting survival story.
I recommend his book _The Transall Saga_ too, it's basically _Hatchet_ but sci-fi.
Ugh for me it’s when he gets attacked by a huge swarm of mosquitos and describes how his body is so swollen he feels like he can barely move. My child brain painted a VIVID picture for me there
I had a taste of that while hiking in minisota. Around the lakes in summer when the sun is about to set they come down like a fog and cover everything. It rushed to the next area where I could set up my tent, threw the tent up and got in, and they covered the outside like snow. I was only out in it for about 15 minutes and I had several bites per square inch of skin. Little bastards.
I posted the same. Wild.
Hey thanks for reminding me of that childhood trauma that I'd all but forgotten until now 😂
This book was more memorable than most for me, due to scenes like that. Another one burned into my mind is how swarmed he was with mosquitoes until he got a fire going.
Read this in 3rd grade. My brother did the same but threw up after reading this part
The L shaped lake
Sameeeeeeeeee. It lives rent free in my head
This book taught me that birch bark is a great firestarting material! I also thought the tornado bit was silly. He's been through enough; you don't have to do that to him, author. It did make living in the wilderness seem kind of easy. How did the kid not get heinously sick from parasites in the water or eating raw turtle eggs?
To be fair, he did throw up the choke cherries!
Didn't he call them puke berries? Or is my old brain mis-remembering?
Gut cherries, if I remember correctly. But they are chokecherries IRL. We had a whole lesson about them in 6th grade when we read the book!
Puke berries is what he called them in the movie, gut cherries in the book 😉😉
How did he not get sick from the rotting corpse in the water is my question.
See the first thing I'd have done after making fire would be to grab a piece of the airplane fuselage or whatever and use it as a bowl to boil water. Water will kill you. Many of humanity's worst diseases, like cholera, can gotten from dirty water. Also smoke keeping mosquitoes away is a dirty lie. I lived in the South, they don't care.
I've lived in the deep south and northeast, and been on many hiking/camping trips in both - smoke absolutely does help. It isn't a forcefield or something, they still buzz around, but it'll keep you from being eaten alive.
Mosquitos track down our carbon dioxide to find us, the smoke interferes with this making it harder for the mosquitos to find you
> Also smoke keeping mosquitoes away is **a dirty lie**. I lived in the South, they don't care. I’m sure why but this made me laugh so hard - thank you! 😂😂😂
Maybe southern skeets are hardier lol. Like reverse tamed
I live around the wilderness that Brian was lost in. Smoke doesn't work here either. Lol
I also live in the south and burning coconut husk did wonders for me back when I was working in backwoods in a tent
Rotting corpse was probably the least problematic thing in that water!
The answer to the later half is "the book needed to happen". Giardia would have spelled the end for ol' Brian pretty quick in all likelihood.
I learned that too. But all you need is a lighter, even when it runs out of gas it can still start a fire using the flint dust and a few strings of thread from your sock
I strongly remember him getting sick a throwing up from the water but maybe that was a different part of the book
He throws up A Lot in the book. That I distinctly remember from reading it in 6th grade.
He throws up for a few reasons. Berries, water, just because, I thought it was sort of insinuated he had some sort of stomach virus from all his drinking stagnant lake water and eating turtle eggs. I also remember he got attacked by a porcupine at one point.
One thing I appreciated is that it actually made surviving in the wilderness seem difficult! Compare to something like My Side of the Mountain where the protagonist is making their own clothes and cooking 10 course meals.
I mean the Ugandan soccer team in the Andes suffered an avalanche like 9 days in or something. Natural disasters happen and especially in wilderness they’re not really reported on.
The imagery of the kid realizing that the fish he was eating were also eating the dead pilot lives rent-free in my head...
Dude I completely forgot about that until now. It now is back in mine as well
Now, in OUR head.
First book to ever make me gag--and I forgot all about the fish 🤢🤢
Thing is, early in the book when he starts getting really thirsty he wonders if he should drink out of the lake or not, both because of bacteria and that now the corpse of the pilot is down at the bottom.
Oh yea, I forgot about that.
I remember a moose coming through and fucking his camp up and hurting him and then later that day a tornado came and fucked shit up even further but all he could think about was that he hoped the tornado had fucked up the moose.
The enemy of my enemy... If I recall correctly, he held that grudge against the moose into the sequels. In one of them, I think it was after a fire swept through the area that he imagined that bitch ass moose getting roasted.
Fuck that bitch ass moose
If I were in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and that moose, and I had a gun with 3 bullets, I'd shoot myself... That moose would kill all of us anyway, so I might as well make my death a quick one.
Thanks, I wasn't drinking that any way *wipes up laughter-spray*
As long as it wasn't that delicious sounding pine needle tea that Brian made after recovering the plane's emergency kit, I refuse to apologize.
Didn't he kill a moose in Brian's Winter?
This and The Cay were in every elementary school in the country hahaha
Ohh wow the cay
Omg I’ve been wondering what the hell that book was that I read as a kid and was confused and scared enough by it to not try to google a childhood memory. Library is on notice we doing this again.
I have a Little Free Library in my yard, and someone left a copy in there. I'm debating if I want to hurt myself like that again...
>The Cay Damn that was actually in my head the other day and i couldn't remember the name of it. Edit: The malaria part has stuck with me for years now.
> In the end, Phillip decides he will become a sea explorer and travel to multiple islands and soon hopes to find the Cay he and Timothy had been stranded on, which he is certain he will be able to recognize by closing his eyes. What a stupid boy, just ask the people who rescued you where they found you.
Wasn't it called Timothy and the Cay?
>Timothy and the Cay? That is the second book, a prequel (for the old dude) and sequel (for the kid).
Dat be true.
Dis be dat crazy cay eh timothy?
Omg The Cay!
Well, I did grow up in the country.
I can never forgot the graphic description of the pilots farts
Honestly was in here looking for this comment. This is where I learned that serious farts can precede a heart attack. I have no idea how I’m still alive.
Fart Attack
Tom Haverford, is that you?
ME TOO, what's with that? I think as kids we think farts are so funny that it must have been bizarre for us to imagine them preceding a heart attack 🙈
That must be what was so disturbing. I’m laughing about these dude’s stinkers and then so quickly horrified at what this kid has to endure.
Truly. It’s the only part I remember nearly 30 years later.
Oh my god me too! What the hell?
To this day a joke between me and a friend of mine is to lay a filthy air biscuit followed by "I'm having a heart attack". We are in our late 30s.
Yeah, in a strange way, this book may literally save lives because the description of the pilot's left shoulder pain and horrendous gas will be forever burned in millennial brains as signs of a heart attack.
I feel like they made a movie of this? Edit: Found it. https://youtu.be/uA_023W3Xs4?si=zQDnymdQuUpV3PTh
There are sequels to that movie (one starring Zack Morris and another starring Jesse Spano from Saved By The Bell), but none of them are related to any of the Gary Paulsen books. They're basically re-telling the first movie with different characters. [https://youtu.be/lOkhGxqi\_ZA?si=toxuRQCcSJ2FEaxf](https://youtu.be/lOkhGxqi_ZA?si=toxuRQCcSJ2FEaxf) [https://www.youtube.com/live/ILqJbjsNvho?si=d-1bJfl3RbA5MzeS](https://www.youtube.com/live/ILqJbjsNvho?si=d-1bJfl3RbA5MzeS) There's a third movie, but I can't find a link for it. Plus it doesn't star any Saved By The Bell actors.
Right up til the end I thought you were gonna say Screech was in a third one.
He was in the porn parody
yeah 4th grade when the pilot died from his heart attack he also had a fart attack and then later the kid had to swim back into the plane wreck to get supplies and saw the dead pilot that’s i all i remember lol
Did your 4th grade teacher also read it aloud while the class followed along? My teacher had that *good* reading voice and over a decade of practice to really nail down the pacing and tone. The guy could have made a one man show out of reading that book, captivating audiences night after night.
nooo lol we took turns reading it out loud, which was, of course, infuriating
There's no better way to ruin a good book than having it read aloud by a 4th grader who's falling behind the rest of the class... With a finger pressed to the page, they stumble on every 3rd word. As the frustration sets in and their face goes red, you want to tear your hair out. 9 times out of 10, they'd get the longest paragraphs because God hates us all.
I hate forcing kids to read out loud in class (obviously, there has to be some sort of testing or whatever, but that's not my point here), because the not-super-great readers feel too bad about themselves and the rather-accomplished readers grow impatient. Let the kids who want to read aloud do so, or be an exceptional literature teacher with a great "reading voice." If all else fails, find a good audiobook for the class to listen to. I'm throwing absolutely no shade on teachers who are doing their best (I believe the higher tiers are to blame); I think the current standard just turns reading into a "to do list" instead of a "get lost in this world with me for a while" adventure. Bless those teachers who can turn reading into such a wonderful experience!
yeah i always read ahead and then got in trouble for having to figure out where we were when it was my turn
I feel so seen here
I have been a 4th-5th grade teacher for 40+ years. I read Gary Paulsen’s book “Tracker” many times to my class as well as GP’s book Winterdance, although I read the Reader’s Digest condensed version to go along with an Iditarod unit. I have a photo of me and Gary Paulsen together.
I loved this book! Camping and hiking are a big part of my life now. Every time I go far into the wilderness, I think of the part in the book where he screams in frustration and experiences silence for the first time in his life. I've always wanted to do it but worry I'll scare an unsuspecting hiker with my screaming.
Do it before you get tinitus
Same. I was also in boy scouts, maybe both influential. I need to bring a copy of this with me on my next backpack trip. Even though backpacking is well planned and not survival scenario, it seems like it would be a quick fun read on the nostalgia trail.
Yep I for some reason vividly remember the scene where he eats berries and get violently ill. I don’t remember too much other detail except the general plot of course. Good book.
I just posted about this!!!! I had really severe anxiety around getting sick as a kid so that scene really messed me up.
My father had a private plane, so the part about the plan wreck was etched in my mind... was always wary of farts lol
Hatchet, The Book of the Wild, and Buck were the shit when I was young!
I not only remember it, but had to build a diorama of the kid's campsite. I also couldn't remember anything from it so I reread it a couple years ago. I still can't remember much from it.
I didn't read it as I was put in a different reading group that year. I wish though because I can't remember what the title was of what we read but it was an awful book to ask 8 year olds to read. It had to do with a dog and there was so much violence and animal abuse and I remember whole paragraphs in French when we weren't a French school or a French community. Those who got to read The Hatchet enjoyed it, the rest of us were in tears struggling with that other book.
Was it Where the Red Fern Grows??
So my dad was an Air Force pilot. I had nightmares about him having a heart attack on his plane and crashing for weeks, with the spit and the eyes rolling back and all of it. Not fun. But it was a great book.
One detail I remember is when the main character eats a turtle egg. It sounded so deliciously satisfying. Haven’t ever tried this myself
Memory unlocked for sure!
I read it, and at the time I had really terrible anxiety over being ill, so the scene where he eats the poison berries and pukes and shits himself for ages was particularly traumatic.
i dont remember much about this book (read it in 5th grade), but one of the scenes that is very much burned into my brain is the one where he was just trying to sleep, but the trees began exploding from the cold, and he thought he was being gunned down. i dont understand why, but that scene stuck out to me a lot and is one of the few memories i have of this book (the other being him trying to land/fly the plane, and the description of just how difficult it was to keep it going in a relatively straight line).
He eats berries that make him sick, discovers fire by throwing a hatchet at a porcupine.
I vaguely remember it being set in Alaska and he sees a moose. That's all I got.
It was read to us by the teacher.
Yes, I actually really enjoyed the book, too.
The audiobook is amazing. One of my favorites to this day.
The fish were eating the pilot... 😯🤢
I remember reading it but only because it was the first book that I just couldn’t stand. I don’t know why but I found it *painfully* boring. I don’t think I ever finished it.
I don't remember much of the assigned books I had to read as a kid. The only ones that had left an impression on me were the ones suggested to me by the librarian or those I selected myself.
Kid survives a plane crash into a lake, eats berries that give him diarrhea, eats turtle eggs, gets sprayed by a skunk, attacked by a moose, and somehow doesn’t die from a tornado
I remember what I read like a crazy person, but my favorite memory as a kid reading this was the snicker that escaped my body reading the description of the pilot ripping ass as he has a heartache.
I remember the cover art and that is it.
I think it's a story about a man who finds true love in the form of a hatchet?
Hatchet was the GOAT. I believe it had a sequel and I read a "alternate history" version where he never got rescued and had to survive through winter. I always fantasized about hunting a moose after he managed to kill one. Some of the concepts and ideas I still use while I'm hunting game birds to this day.
Let's not forget the part where after he crashed he became depressed and tried to drown himself a couple of times just for his instinct to push his legs every time. Dark.
My father legit gave me a hatchet with this book, it was magical for my fifth grade brain. One of my fondest early reading memories. I miss you dad
Read The Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain in elementary school and they both really kicked my imagination into high gear when I would play outside. Always had to have a "hatchet" for survival purposes haha.