• HATCHET
• by Gary Paulsen
• [rated by PBS readers as #71]
• [a series]
• 181 pages

Okay, now we’re talking. Now my page turning hands (Yes, that is still how I read and I always will, not having even the most remote interest in staring at a screen any longer than I already do in any given day. Plus, my love of handling books! Smelling a hardback book is one of life’s simple pleasures.) and my thinking heart are deeply involved in this great story!

You know, I’ve been on the radio in Sonoma for 12 years. My original radio partner, Pat Reed, was a teacher. She and her other school teacher friends had a kid lit book club.

Magnanimous as I was (not!), I really secretly put her down for that. Books for teens? Really? Is that all you guys want to read? Adult books a little too much for you?

But color me corrected. Hatchet is the second book for young adults that I have read for this project. And I have liked these two books far beyond all the others.

After the ridiculousness of planet skipping / jumping in the last book, it is very satisfying to settle into a story that reads well and has genuine suspense. After reading a few summaries about this Hatchet series in Amazon, many parents commented on reading this book to their kids and both of them getting so much out of it. They frequently mentioned not knowing what was going to happen next and that is dead on, at least after 50 pages.

Perhaps the greatest element and contribution of these books aimed at a younger audience is the alacrity with which the plot reveals itself. There is nothing extra in there, plain and simple. I love brevity when I am writing my own books and I love it here.

So here goes the initial premise. A 13-year boy is on his first plane ride ever. It is a single engine plane and he and the pilot are flying over hundred of acres of woods in Canada, to meet up with the boy’s father where he will spend the summer, when the pilot has a heart attack and dies right there in the cockpit, above endless woods.

Sound like a good beginning? You better believe it!

7/18/19

Well, it is now official. Hatchet was a stone cold winner. It was a great story that unfolded with perfect timing, a great tone and not one extra word.

This boy has to learn how to fend for himself. He isn’t schooled in that so each day and each discovery takes him a step further.

But the book’s successes are more than an obviously wonderful premise. The success lies in the way that you are completely glued to the point of view of this boy. You don’t know what you would do next, so the boy’s logic and his confusions are all yours too. I can honestly say that, like parents describing their feelings about it in the reviews I read, I had more moments having no idea what the boy would or should do than I can remember in a book in a very long time. That is writing talent right there. I might consider reading another one of this series somewhere down the road.

Absolutely successful and what a relief to read something that was nothing more than a great story told well. Bravo.

Hmmm…. Wonder what follows this. I’m okay with a bigger opus, but…still a ‘fraidy cat with this. We’ll see.

But mostly still basking in this last one. What a well-written story! I’m beaming.

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The selection process this time was both more labored and more interesting.

For one thing, I always pick out three titles. This is really just so that I can be sure I’m reading something that is as far away from the last book as possible.

I had no doubt that any book would be pretty darned far away from Hatchet. But for some reason, I picked four this time. One little slip caught my eye and I stuck it in my little pile.

Glad I did. Cuz two of them were not doable for me right now. 1984 and Handmaid’s Tale. Quite frankly, reading something about Dystopian worlds or warnings of how far down we could fall while we are laboring under the regime of Donald Trump was just too much. Not even not entertaining, but downright self abuse!

So that left the other two titles – The Picture of Dorian Gray and Gulliver’s Travels. I called my little bookstore. Sadly, as usual, they didn’t have either of them. I called the library though and they had both.

Last night, the one I was leaning toward was Dorian Gray but I got them both. When I picked them up, Dorian Gray was this paperback with a super crappy cover – which I’m not into! Then, during a break in work, I started it. I immediately knew that I wanted to underline stuff. Really fun and glib writing, so I needed to buy my own copy and called the bookstore to order it for me.

In the meantime, I will dig into Gulliver’s Travels and who knows? It could be my first dual read. Certainly the two books are different enough…