Most Popular Books by Gary Paulsen

After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents'' divorce.

The government sends Brian back to the Canadian wilderness in this beloved follow-up to the award-winning classic Hatchet from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen! Two years after Brian Robeson survived fifty-four days alone in the Canadian wilderness, the government wants him to head back so they can learn what he did to stay alive. This time Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, will accompany him. But a freak storm leaves Derek unconscious. Brian''s only hope is to transport Derek a hundred miles down the river to a trading post. He''s survived with only a hatchet before--now can Brian build a raft and navigate an unknown river? For the first time it''s not only Brian''s survival that''s at stake. . . An IRA-CBC Children’s Choice A Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year “Vividly written, a book that will, as intended, please the readers who hoped that Paulsen, like Brian, would ‘do it again.’” —Kirkus Reviews Read all the Hatchet Adventures! Brian''s Winter The River Brian''s Return Brian''s Hunt

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Northwind, a unique exploration into the exhilarating joys—and the inevitable dangers—of total solitude. Every day, fifteen-year-old Wil Neuton gets up, brushes his teeth, leaves the house, and rows away from shore. He’s discovered the island, a place where he can go to be alone and learn to know nature—and himself. Wil’s only mission is to let go of the outside world. But the outside world refuses to let go of him. His family regards him as a puzzle. The town bully is determined to challenge him. And suddenly, even reporters know his name. He can confront them all, or he can embrace his solitude forever. Just one thing is certain now: Wil Neuton will no longer be relying on anybody but himself. “This could have been another back-to-nature story, but Newbery Honor writer Paulsen tells Wil’s inner journey with a confident lyricism that duplicates Wil’\’s emotional qualities.” —Publishers Weekly “Wil Neuton seeks out harmony within [nature], recalibrating his life by way of his self-imposed solitude on the island . . . While Hatchet provided readers with some much-needed escapism, The Island centered its focus on what we can never escape—mortality, which, in the immediate aftermath of Paulsen’s passing, now takes on new significance.” —The Millions

In this book, Paulsen describes some of the dangerous episodes in his own life, many of which he has drawn on in his novels.

A young hunter must confront the value of life as he faces the loss of his grandfather. For John Borne''s family, hunting has nothing to do with sport or manliness. It''s a matter of survival. Every fall John and his grandfather go off into the woods to shoot the deer that puts meat on the table over the long Minnesota winter. But this year John''s grandfather is dying, and John must hunt alone. John tracks a doe for two days, but as he closes in on his prey, he realizes he cannot shoot her. For John, the hunt is no longer about killing, but about life.

Four teenagers--a Native American girl, an illegal Mexican immigrant, a sheepherder''s daughter and a gifted rock musician--share the hopes and promise of a future imperiled by the threat of nuclear war.

For a rugged outdoor man and his family, life in northern Minnesota is a wild experience involving wolves, deer, and the sled dogs that make their way of life possible. Includes an account of the author''s first Iditarod, a dogsled race across Alaska.

Guess what -- Gary Paulsen was being kind to Brian. In Guts, Gary tells the real stories behind the Brian books, the stories of the adventures that inspired him to write Brian Robeson''s story: working as an emergency volunteer; the death that inspired the pilot''s death in Hatchet; plane crashes he has seen and near-misses of his own. He describes how he made his own bows and arrows, and takes readers on his first hunting trips, showing the wonder and solace of nature along with his hilarious mishaps and mistakes. He shares special memories, such as the night he attracted every mosquito in the county, or how he met the moose with a sense of humor, and the moose who made it personal. There''s a handy chapter on \"Eating Eyeballs and Guts or Starving: The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition.\" Recipes included. Readers may wonder how Gary Paulsen survived to write all of his books -- well, it took guts.

A 13 year-old boy crashlands, alone in the Canadian wilderness. All that stands between living and dying is a hatchet. Somehow he must learn to use this one tool to fend off starvation, wild animals and many other hazards.

Presents three classic novels, including \"Hatchet,\" as well as the nonfiction work \"Woodsong\" in which Paulsen recounts some of the life experiences that shaped his fiction.

Sent to spend the summer with his uncle and aunt on their farm, an eleven-year-old city boy meets his daredevil cousin Harris and is given an introduction to a whole new world.

In this Paulsen classic, a treasured rifle passed down through generations isthe cause of a tragic accident.

Paulsen and his team of dogs endured snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, and hallucinations in the relentless push to go on. Map and color photographs.

Told through the eyes of a 5-year-old boy, this is a story of adventure and discovery in a cookcamp located in the Canadian woods during World War II.When?: World War IIWhere?: A cookcamp in the Canadian woodsWhy?: He''s not really sure. One summer, a 5-year-old boy goes to live with his grandmother in a cookcamp. The camp is home to 9 men who are building a road through the woods. The boy misses his mother, but at the same time the camp becomes home--a special home where he learns to spit and rides the tractor. It''s a wonderful summer, but then he lets slip to his grandmother about \"Uncle Casey\" and she writes seven letters to his mother. Seven letters that she mails \"good and hard.\" A short while later, the boy returns home.

So many readers have written and asked: What happened to Sarny, the young slave girl who learned to read in Nightjohn? Extraordinary things happened to her, from the moment she fled the plantation in the last days of the Civil War, suddenly a free woman in search of her sold-away children, until she found them and began a new life. Sarny''s story gives a panoramic view of America in a time of trial, tragedy, and hoped-for change, until her last days in the 1930s.

WHEN YOU GROW up in a small town in the north woods, you have to make your own excitement. High spirits, idiocy, and showing off for the girls inspire Gary Paulsen and his friends to attempt: • Shooting waterfalls in a barrel • The first skateboarding • Breaking the world record for speed on skis by being towed behind a souped-up car, and then . . . hitting gravel • Jumping three barrels like motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, except they only have bikes • Wrestling . . . a bear? Extreme sports lead to extreme fun in new tales from Gary’s boyhood. A New York Times Bestseller

From the Newbery Award–winning, New York Times–bestselling author of Northwind. “A stark, moving portrait of Mexican poverty and street life.” —School Library Journal Fourteen-year-old Manny is an orphan in Juarez, Mexico. He competes with his bigger, meaner rivals for the coins American tourists throw off the bridge between Texas and his town. Across that heavily guarded bridge await a different world and a better existence. On the night when Manny dares the crossing—through the muddy shallows of the Rio Grande, past the searchlights and the border patrol—the young man encounters an old stranger who could prove to be an ally or an enemy. Manny can’t tell for certain. But if he is to achieve his dream, then he must be willing to risk everything—even his life. “Paulsen . . . is skilled at pace, incident and characterization, and he uses them to pull the reader to the memorable—and powerful—last scene . . . A book for older children and teenagers who will not want to put it down.” —Kirkus Reviews “Any work by such a proficient writer, who invokes a powerful sense of the tragic in readers young and old, is welcome indeed.” —Publishers Weekly

This is the final book in the Hatchet series, and deals with the way in which Brian is coping with his inability to settle back into city life two years after his plane crash.

A Newbery Honor Book by the New York Times–bestselling author of Northwind. “A compelling description of farming in a bygone time.” —Publishers Weekly ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults ALA Notable Book for Children Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children’s Literature Following the turn of the seasons, eleven-year-old Eldon traces the daily routines of his life on a farm and his relationship with his older brother Wayne. During the winter, with little work to be done on the farm, Eldon and Wayne spend the quiet hours with their family, listening to their Uncle David’s stories. But Eldon soon learns that, although he has lived on the same farm, in the same house with his uncle for eleven springs, summers, and winters, he hardly knows him. “It is the palpable awareness of place and character that is unforgettable. Paulsen, with a simple intensity, brings to consciousness the texture, the smells, the light and shadows of each distinct season. He has penned a mood poem in prose.” —School Library Journal “More a prose poem than a novel, this beautifully written evocation of a Minnesota farm perhaps 40 years ago consists of portraits of each of the four seasons, along with four brief stories told by old Uncle David.” —Kirkus Reviews

The great American writer Ernest Hemingway, had this to say about Mark Twain''s Huckleberry Finn: \"All modern, literature, stems from this one book.\" In this quintessential American novel, Tom Sawyer''s best friend, Huckleberry Finn, travels down the Mississippi River on a raft with a slave named Jim, getting himself in and out of danger along the way.

Brian returns to the wilderness to discover where he truly belongs in this follow-up to the award-winning classic Hatchet from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen! As millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, and Brian''s Winter know, Brian Robeson survived alone in the wilderness by finding solutions to extraordinary challenges. But now that''s he''s back to ordinary life, he can''t make sense of high school life. He feels disconnected, more isolated than he did alone in the north woods. How can Brian discover his true path in life, and where he belongs? The answer is to return. Gay Paulsen skillfully explores the meaning of belonging and purpose, and reminds us of a crucial rule of the wilderness: expect the unexpected. “Bold, confident and persuasive.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred “Paulsen bases many of his protagonist’s experiences on his own, and the wilderness through which Brian moves is vividly observed.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Read all the Hatchet Adventures! Brian''s Winter The River Brian''s Return Brian''s Hunt

Kevin Spencer has a history of big ideas going completely awry. This time around, it''s personal. Suddenly, he is kind of in charge of a double wedding in his backyard and a whole tribe of wacky relatives.

A teenager left on his own travels west in a kit car he built himself, and along the way picks up two Vietnam veterans, who take him on an eye-opening journey.

Gary Paulsen has owned dozens of unforgettable and amazing dogs. In each chapter he tells of one special dog, among them Cookie, the sled dog who saved his life; Snowball, the puppy he owned as a boy in the Philippines; Ike, his mysterious hunting companion; Dirk, the grim protector; and his true friend Josh, a brilliant border collie.

How corn is harvested and made into tortillas.

This stunning New York Times Bestseller from the survival story master, set along a rugged coastline centuries ago, does for the ocean what Hatchet does for the woods, as it relates the story of a young person’s battle to stay alive against the odds, where the high seas meet a coastal wilderness. When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to “the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea.” With hints of Nordic mythology and an irresistible narrative pull, Northwind is Gary Paulsen at his captivating, adventuresome best.

An Indian brave stands poised to shoot a white deer drinking from a pool of water in the moonlight. It is only a dream—a recurring nightmare that haunts 15-year-old Janet Carson—but it is a dream that will change her life forever. Janet, one of the few Anglo teens in the New Mexico art colony where she lives with her mother, feels isolated and alone. For some reason, she is drawn to Billy Honcho, an old, alcoholic Indian who begs for money from her. As they get to know each other, the meaning of Janet''s nightmare grows clear, and Billy becomes the brave in her dream.

Brian sets out on the hunt of a lifetime in this follow-up to the award-winning classic Hatchet from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen! Brian Robeson has stood up to the challenge of surviving the wilderness in Hatchet, The River, Brian''s Winter, and Brian''s Return. Now, while camping alone on a lake in the woods, he finds a wounded and whimpering dog. As Brian treats her wounds, he worries about who or what did this to her. His instincts tell him to head north, quickly, to check on his Cree friends. With his new companion at his side, he sets out on the hunt. Gary Paulsen expertly delivers a riveting story that brilliantly combines two of his great themes: the human animal''s place in nature, and the mysterious and wonderful bond between humans and dogs. “The Brian books reveal nature and humankind’s place in it with spare prose that seems ideally suited to the setting and plot.” —VOYA “Based on real incidents, this well-written sequel to Hatchet and its successors will be gobbled up by the author’s legions of fans.” —Kirkus Reviews Read all the Hatchet Adventures! Brian''s Winter The River Brian''s Return Brian''s Hunt

\"To know things, for us to know things, is bad for them. We get to wanting and when we get to wanting it''s bad for them. They thinks we want what they got . . . . That''s why they don''t want us reading.\" -- Nightjohn \"I didn''t know what letters was, not what they meant, but I thought it might be something I wanted to know. To learn.\"--Sarny Sarny, a female slave at the Waller plantation, first sees Nightjohn when he is brought there with a rope around his neck, his body covered in scars. He had escaped north to freedom, but he came back--came back to teach reading. Knowing that the penalty for reading is dismemberment Nightjohn still retumed to slavery to teach others how to read. And twelve-year-old Sarny is willing to take the risk to learn. Set in the 1850s, Gary Paulsen''s groundbreaking new novel is unlike anything else the award-winning author has written. It is a meticulously researched, historically accurate, and artistically crafted portrayal of a grim time in our nation''s past, brought to light through the personal history of two unforgettable characters.

The lives of a 14-year-old Mexican prostitute, living in the United States illegally, and a wealthy American girl intersect in a dramatic way

A young boy and his mother spend Christmas 1943 with relatives in northern Minnesota while his father is fighting in the war in Europe. They take a long journey by train to a snowy land of vast frozen lakes, deep and sparkling cold, and the most magical Christmas tree the boy has ever seen. He knows this will be the last Christmas he will spend with his cousin, who is dying. The boy''s uncle overhears the two cousins say there is no Santa Claus, and in a grand gesture that is nothing short of a Christmas miracle, he restores the children''s faith in the spirit of the season.

An adventure novel about survival at sea from the Newbery Award–winning author of Northwind. “An epic, often lyrical journey of self-discovery.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults ALA Notable Book for Children ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers David thought he was alone, that the ocean around him was all there was of the world. The wind screamed, the waves towered, and his boat, the twenty-two foot fiberglass FROG, skidded and bucked and, each moment, filled deeper and grew heavier with sea water. David thought surely he was dead at fourteen. His uncle Owen, who had taught him about sailing safely, would be so angry. Owen had died only days ago, his last wish for David to take the FROG out on his own, and sail her beyond sight of the coast, and once there, scatter Owen’s ashes. David had done this the evening before, but he hadn’t thought of a storm roaring across the Pacific, or of the terror of being alone later in the dark hundreds of miles from home with no radio or flares and little food. He hadn’t thought of a shark attacking, or of the four killer whales, or the oil tanker large as a city about to sink him and the FROG . . . But in fact, David wasn’t alone at all. He’d had the FROG as a partner from the first—his uncle’s guiding spirit. He had only to learn that. “Paulsen’s spare prose offers an affecting blend of the boy’s inner thoughts and keen observations of the power of nature to destroy and to heal.” —School Library Journal

Fourteen-year-old John Barron is asked, like his father and grandfather before him, to spend the summer taking care of their sheep in the haymeadow. Six thousand sheep. John will be alone, except for two horses, four dogs, and all those sheep. John doesn''t feel up to the task, but he hopes that if he can accomplish it, he will finally please his father. But John finds that the adage \"things just to sheep\" is true when the river floods, coyotes attack, and one dog''s feet get cut. Through it all he must rely on his own resourcefulness, ingenuity, and talents to survive this summer in the haymeadow.

Mark''s solo camping trip in the desert turns into a terrifying and thrilling odyssey when a mysterious beam of light transports him to another time on what appears to be another planet. As Mark searches for a pathway back to his own time on Earth, he must make a new life in a new world. His encounters with primitive tribes bring the joy of human bonds, but violence and war as well--and, finally, a contest in which he discovers his own startling powers.

\"We want you to do it again.\"These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived. Now the government wants him to do it again--to go back into the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept Brian alive.This time he won''t be alone: Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, will accompany him to observe and take notes. But during a freak storm, Derek is hit by lightning and falls into a coma. Their radio transmitter is dead. Brian is afraid that derek will die of dehydration unless he can get him to a doctor. His only hope is to build a raft and try to transport Derek a hundred miles down the river to a trading post--if the map he has is accurate.

For a 16-year-old boy out in the world alone for the first time, every day''s an education in the hard work and boredom of migrant labor; every day teaches him something more about friendship, or hunger, or profanity, or lust--always lust. He learns how a poker game, or hitching a ride, can turn deadly. He discovers the secret sadness and generosity to be found on a lonely farm in the middle of nowhere. Then he joins up with a carnival and becomes a grunt, running a ride and shilling for the geek show. He''s living the hard carny life and beginning to see the world through carny eyes. He''s tough. Cynical. By the end of the summer he''s pretty sure he knows it all. Until he meets Ruby.

From three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen comes a beloved follow-up to his award-winning classic Hatchet that asks: What if Brian hadn''t been rescued and had to face his deadliest enemy yet--winter? In the Newbery Honor-winning Hatchet, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed only with his hatchet. As millions of readers know, he was rescued at the end of the summer. But what if that hadn''t happened? What if Brian had been left to face his deadliest enemy--winter? Brian Paulsen raises the stakes for survival in this riveting and inspiring story as one boy confronts the ultimate adventure. “Paulsen picks Hatchet’s story up in midstream; read together, the two books make his finest tale of survival yet.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred “Breathtaking descriptions of nature . . . Paulsen fans will not be disappointed.” —School Library Journal Read all the Hatchet Adventures! Brian''s Winter The River Brian''s Return Brian''s Hunt

Two boys hero worship a man they are told to stay away from.

A remarkable novel about one of the most important, and loving, relationships in Gary Paulsen''s life. The wonderful grandmother seen through the eyes of a young boy in The Cookcamp reaches out to him at 14, offering him a haven from his harsh and painful family life. She arranges a summer job for him on the farm where she is a cook for Gunnar and Olaf, elderly brothers. Farm life offers the camaraderie and routine of hard work, good food, peaceful evenings spent making music together, even learning to dance. Life with Alicia gives the boy strength and faith in himself, drawing him away from the edge and into the center of life.