Lots of great deals going on right now. Check out the recent blog posts for details!
And we are closing in on the release date for Fairy Blade Unmade. I’m getting excited about it. This is really a fun book, and can be read as a standalone even if you haven’t read the rest of the series. I’ve done an interview about it with Uvi Poznansky and did a short reading for that interview. You can preorder it now!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I am reading the Newbery Award-winning Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I’ve always liked survival stories, especially when they involve kids/teens. The book is set in Canada, which is an added bonus, and I didn’t realize that it is the first in a series (The Brian Saga). Despite the fact that this is an award-winner, I have found the writing to be weak in a few places. The plot and the survival techniques are solid. Pacing is reasonably good. Lots of exciting disasters. All of the basic stuff you look for in a survival novel are here.
He was alone.
In the roaring plane with no pilot he was alone.
Alone.
Gary Paulsen, Hatchet
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother’s infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.
At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills—how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire—and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.
