The story, in my mind is third in the series, Following 'Hatchet' and 'Brian's Winter'. Now I've begun the saga that is the Brian trapped in the wilderness I feel I have to complete the mission with him. I've really enjoyed this book, though the detail of their survival is lacking, but then is the length of time they need to survive. The assumption, I guess, is that we are all too aware now of Brian's skill in survival situations. We no longer need the detail of eating bugs and the longing, aching hunger that comes from a situation like this. That's not where the action lies. It's in pulling through someone who knows nothing of this at the beginning of the tail and spends the second half of the book unconscious. I'd certainly encourage my class to read this one for themselves the next time I share 'Hatchet'.
Synopsis
Two years ago, Brian Robsen was stranded alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a small hatchet. He survived. Now, the governmentwants him to do it again - to go back into the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept him alive.
This time he won't be alone: Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, will accompany him. But during a freak storm, Derek is hit by lightning and falls into a coma. Their radio transmitter is dead. Brian's 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.
Author
Gary James Paulsen (born May 17, 1939)is
an American writer of young adult literature, best known for coming of
age stories about the wilderness.
He is the author of more than 200 books and has written more than 200
magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily
for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American
Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for
teens. Wikipedia
I love Bill Bryson's travelogues. By now this is an oldie but a goodie. I really enjoyed the first portion of the book when he walks the major portion of the Appalachian Trail in one go. I felt the last quarter fell away to nothing as his went out for a day here and there. Having said that he writes in a very accessible and humorous way. I think I'll have to get the movie out and give it a watch.
Synopsis
The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America.
At the age of forty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz(last seen in the best selling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set out to hime through the vast tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing ticks, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the of the external-frame backpack.
Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle
Author
William
McGuire Bryson OBE HonFRS is an Anglo-American author of books on
travel, the English language, science, and other non-fiction topics. Wikipedia
Other books
The Lost Continent (1989)
Mother Tongue (1990)
Neither Here nor There (1992)
Made in America (1994)
Notes from a Small Island (1996)
A Walk in the Woods (1998)
Notes from a Big Country (1999)
Down Under (2000)
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002)
Bill Bryson's African Diary (2002)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006)
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (2007)
Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2008)
A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (2009)
At Home: A Short History of Private Life (2010)
One Summer: America, 1927 (2013)
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island (2015)
