RIP Gary Paulsen 1939-2021

Preacher

https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/1448374554695450632

Three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen, known for his wilderness adventure novels for children such as ‘Hatchet,’ died this morning at age 82

I remember Hatchet as one of those books they give you as a young boy who doesn't like to read. My personal favorite was Voyage of the Frog which was another adolescent vs the wilderness story about a young man stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean after a storm.

Anyone else have any connection to his books?

dlinfiniti

everyone has a connection to that zombie in the lake

Cauld

I always remembered liking The Hatchet and would think about it occasionally over the years. I reread it about 2 years ago in my mid 30s and it was an easy read (clearly a YA book) but it held up pretty well I thought. Any book that sticks with you that long is doing something right.

Preacher

Cauld wrote: »

I always remembered liking The Hatchet and would think about it occasionally over the years. I reread it about 2 years ago in my mid 30s and it was an easy read (clearly a YA book) but it held up pretty well I thought. Any book that sticks with you that long is doing something right.

Apparently its a librarian favorite to give to boys struggling to read.

Preacher

Just never watch the Cry in the Wild movie, its so damn bad.

DarkPrimus

Alright, I misread the thread title as "Gary Larson"

Hatchet was a book I very much enjoyed as a kid... as well as the sci-fi version of Hatchet he wrote.

Mortal Sky

I always found Paulsen's most compelling stuff to be his autobiographical material, especially surrounding his life dogsledding and his stab at the Iditarod

Gyral

My wife (7th grade English teacher) was actually talking with her sixth-grade counterpart about having this book as a part of the curriculum today. This news is eerily timely.

Gim

Hatchet was assigned reading in the third or fourth grade. I ended up also reading the sequel, The River, but perhaps more importantly I also read Brian's Winter which served as an alternate ending / extension of the first book. That was the first time I had come across something like that, a complete narrative re-direct.

Gilgaron

The Hatchet was a great book and may be part of why I always take a well honed hatchet camping and hiking.

SummaryJudgment

Gilgaron wrote: »

The Hatchet was a great book and may be part of why I always take a well honed hatchet camping and hiking.

I just bought a Fiskars X7 the other day. Husky didn't come sharp, Estwing was outside my budget.

SummaryJudgment

Dumb literal hatchet talk aside, I loved the books as a kid, and they're nestled inside a portion of my brain that also contains the My Side of the Mountain books, Sign of the Beaver, and the Julie of the Wolves books.

Gilgaron

I don't think its dumb to include real literal hatchet talk, The River deals with him trying the "more realistic scenario" of having a survival knife instead of a hatchet and the differences in tactics needed. I think our relationship to tools is like our relationship to food, really. The hook for 'little boys who don't like to read' is definitely the whole problem solving aspect of the series.

Edit to add: learning to sharpen something by hand is something I've enjoyed, although axes and hatchets can be trickier than knifes and chisels or plane irons. But I like tools and making them, so I may be more romantic about the whole thing vs, say, a utility knife with throw away blades.

Athenor

Holy shit, he was still alive?

Yeah. I'm in the Hatchet book too, where I read it when I was in middle school. Jeez, that was 30 years ago. The book must have really made an impact on schools.

SummaryJudgment

Gilgaron wrote: »

I don't think its dumb to include real literal hatchet talk, The River deals with him trying the "more realistic scenario" of having a survival knife instead of a hatchet and the differences in tactics needed. I think our relationship to tools is like our relationship to food, really. The hook for 'little boys who don't like to read' is definitely the whole problem solving aspect of the series.

Edit to add: learning to sharpen something by hand is something I've enjoyed, although axes and hatchets can be trickier than knifes and chisels or plane irons. But I like tools and making them, so I may be more romantic about the whole thing vs, say, a utility knife with throw away blades.

"Dumb" was a bad descriptor, I'm sorry, I should've went with "silly" to refer to my post talking about brands -- it's surely not dumb to take a good hatchet with you camping or hiking!

I love tools and it's a joy to own and maintain them and to have them for the things you want to do :-)

Smrtnik

Having immigrated to the states at high school age i never heard of him.
Is it a worthwhile read as an adult? Would my 7yo daughter like it or is this some sort of "for boys only" thing?

Preacher

Smrtnik wrote: »

Having immigrated to the states at high school age i never heard of him.
Is it a worthwhile read as an adult? Would my 7yo daughter like it or is this some sort of "for boys only" thing?

Its a good story about survival, I don't think its specific to being a boy.

knitdan

I can never recall the name of it but there was a “Hatchet”-like book with a girl protagonist and she built this fire-starter device shaped like a flower and I was always mad because I couldn’t figure out how it worked.

DouglasDanger

Damn, that's a shame. 83 is a good run though.

I really enjoyed his books, especially Hatchet.

DoctorArch

I read this decades ago and remember it vividly but it never occupied my headspace until seeing this thread.

I'm currently reading the Ramona series to my kids (9 & 6) but I might take a detour into Hatchet after I finish Ramona and her Father.