This book is written by Gary Paulsen. It takes place in the Canadian wilderness, where Brian Robeson’s, who is 13 yrs. Old, plane crashes. Brian shows a lot of determination and strength, to be able to survive in the wilderness, with no one else. The story starts out with Brian in the city, he lives with his mother, who is divorced. His mother gives him a gift before he leaves and it is a hatchet that fits on his belt so Brian puts it there.
Brian meets the pilot and he is a nice man. Brian and the pilot get ready to leave and then Brian remembers that he saw a man kissing his mom but he does not let it bother him. Brian leaves and after an hour or so, the pilot was yelling and screaming that his chest hurts. He had a and died.
Now Brian had to fly the plane on his own. Brian picked up the CB radio and called for help. He made contact with a man and Brian told him that the pilot had a heart attack and died and that he did not know how to fly a plane. Brian did not get an answer. Brian is flying to Alaska to visit his dad for the summer when suddenly the pilot has a heart attack and dies. He grabs onto the controls and tries to land the plane but there’s no flat area so he decides to crash into a lake.
He hustles out of the plane with his hatchet at his side and swims to the shore. He has to use the natural resources and his brain. Brian uses his hatchet to make a shelter and weapons. He chops down branches and sets them up for his shelter. ‘With the branches he interlaced and wove a wall of the opening of the front of the rocks. Then he goes to get grass to put on top of the branches.
He uses the shelter to protect him from the rain and some animals. After he builds the shelter, Brian uses his hatchet to make spears and arrows. He takes branches and sharpens the tip of them to make arrows and spears. ‘He had worked on the fish spear until it had become more then just a tool. He shoots the arrows at birds and throws the spears at fish. ‘I know about fire; I know I need fire.’ Brian says this the second night he’s there.
Brian needs a fire because he needs it for heat, to cook food and to keep animals away. Brian makes the fire with his hatchet and a rock. First, he figures out that he needs some paper so he takes his 20-dollar bill and tries to burn it. Unfortunately, the bill just burns right out and leaves him with no fire. After that, he takes his hatchet and cuts small pieces of bark. Then he piles them up under twigs.
Then he takes his hatchet and hits a rock with a great blow and sparks catch the bark on fire. He hits another blow and the sparks catch the twigs on fire. Therefore, he has a fire. This process shows that whatever Brian sets his mind to he can do it. About two months later Brian went to the bottom of the lake to see if there was anything useful in the plane. He brought up a survival package.
There were many useful things in there like bandages and matches. Couple months later, just before winter was going to hit a man shows up in a plane. The guy in the plane was the man Brian had talked to just before the crash. It took this long for him to figure out where Brian would of crashed.
He said that they had a search party out for him for over two months. When Brian got home his mother and father were waiting for him along with a lot of reporters and their tons of questions. From that day on Brian appreciated his food and other things that he had that he might not have.