HATCHET

HATCHET by Gary Paulsen

HATCHET may have been around for about 40 years now, but I recently took a group of upper elementary and middle graders through it, and it has the same appeal today as it did the day it became a Newberry Honor Book which is why I'm adding it to my TOP PICKS list.

Brian Robeson's parents are divorced. His mom lives in New York and his dad in the oil fields of Canada where he works. The time has come for Brian's first visitation trip to Canada to spend time with his dad. Before boarding the bush plane that will fly him to his father's remote location, his mother gifts him a hatchet. Flying across the Canadian backcountry, the pilot unexpectedly has a heart attack, and Brian is plunged immediately into a race for survival. Written in a beautifully descriptive way, it's clear that Paulsen knows the wilderness and survival. Lessons leap from every page, but SPOILER ALERT the biggest impact of Hatchet on the reader is knowing that it is possible to survive hardships in life.

HEADS UP- Hatchet deals with some very difficult topics, but if you stay with me, it also becomes a door for some important discussions.

-Brian has something he keeps referring to as "The Secret" in the book. We find out that "The Secret" is his mom is having an affair. Brian sees her from a distance kiss a man at one point. Even though Brian knows about this, he can't bring himself to tell his dad. We can surmise that this is why the divorce happens even though his dad doesn't directly know about it. So what can you do with this? The book doesn't glorify the affair at all. In fact at one point, Brian blames his mom for what happens to him because of it. (No divorce would equal not being sent to Canada.) I chose to use this as a platform to look at Scripture with the kids about God's plan for marriage. We discussed what a lifelong commitment means. We talked about the fallout from divorce. Hopefully, good seeds were planted, so when the time comes and these kids are thinking about marriage, they'll remember what they are committing to.

-Pilot dies from a heart attack. Brian survives but deals with intense hardship in trying to survive. He considers killing himself at one point, but a strong lesson is learned here about never considering it again. I took the time to talk to the kids about suicide, and we looked to Scripture to reinforce our discussion.

-D*** is used by the rescue pilot at the end of the story.