iWANTaBETTERuserNAME
78265
1226
18
40 years old and I can still remember this book from my childhood in the public school system.
Nov 5, 2023 9:49 PM
iWANTaBETTERuserNAME
78265
1226
18
40 years old and I can still remember this book from my childhood in the public school system.
greenbloodedcomputer
I teach middle school, and every single year this is a favourite for so many of my kids.
jlcurtiss
His name was Gary Paulson. His name was Gary Paulson.
BHPaperstacks
I used to daydream for hours about this book and what I'd do in that situation any time I was bored until I got a 4G smartphone and my imagination was completely obliterated.
CrazyLikeEd
I went on to read most of Paulsen's work, highly recommend
Animatronio
Gary Paulsen visited my school district for a talk back in the day! It was pretty cool. He peed on an electric fence once...
amoeba15
But Ren & Stimpy told not to whizz on an electric fence
Timberwolves4ever
Never read it. What’s it about? Yes I could Google but this way is more fulfilling.
Fastjack2056
IIRC, a teenage boy is the only survivor of a small plane crash. He has to use the tools at hand to survive in the wilderness. Many adventures are had, many hardships overcome.
Timberwolves4ever
Oh hell yea. Sounds like a perfect middle school book. We didn’t read this one. But we read “Timothy of the Cay” and the “Tripod Trilogy.” I really liked both. I wish they would make movies out of them.
MicahtheMartian
So many fond memories of this book and traipsing around the forests pretending to be Brian.
kickmyballsrealhard
Fucking hidden core memory brain cell just lit up when I scrolled upon this
TheCobb1
I remember reading this… but I can’t tell you a thing about it.
kickmyballsrealhard
Same
GravyEducation
I think about this book all the time, especially figuring out hunting with a bow and the way he had to breathe in the cold
SmergBlaerghl
Inside you there is half a wolf.
n0gal
We're sorry about the transporter malfunction.
TheSlurmFactory
For some reason, all I remember from this book is the fact that the pilot "smelled bad" right before he had a heart attack and I'm still paranoid about that to this day 😅
amoeba15
IIRC, the pilot was farting
orngeturtl
Can’t go to a Costco without thinking about the last scene in the grocery store
fformulaa
DurendaI
Better than Where the Red Fern Grows... :'(
RevolutionOnHerLips
I'll see your dead dogs and raise you a Bridge to Terabithia
arumunus
Goodnight Mr Tom. ):
imakesoap
Omg, that was my favorite book as a child, I did not see that plot. I cried and cried. Still remember it and I’m old
mikeatike
God dammit, someone had to bring up this mental scar from like 2nd grade.
JustinWasHere
First time I ever cried reading a book. It was a revelation. Learning that words on a page could do that to a person...Wow.
keyblader1985
That bird he cooked sounded so damn succulent
MissJane
The scene in the sequel where he cooks a moose also sounded fantastic
TheMiamiVicePresident
S U C C U L E N T
somethingstupidandclever
That whole scene was probably the first time i read something and forgot i was reading and had vivid imagery happening.
WeCantHaveNiceThings
Day 1: had sex with hatchet.
OperationRustysBlanket
What was it wearing?
Imsomewhatofaboobmyself85
It's OK everyone has sex with the hatchet. BUT THE FIRST DAY
porcubot
It's the whole reason I applied, my dude.
Imsomewhatofaboobmyself85
Fair enough
eromitlab
Day 2: oops, bled to death after having sex with the hatchet.
MissivesFromTheTower
Day 2: Hatchet left me for a blade of grass.
coothlesscthulhu
BurningVeryImportantThings
Day 3: I finally read 'Hatchet' and I have made some mistakes.
WeCantHaveNiceThings
Strand a man on a deserted island for a day, he’ll fuck sand and have 23 1/2 hours to kill.
PyroDragon
Are there no animals on this island? Why would he turn to sand first?
Triangle1118Energy
It's a deserted island, of course there are no animals.
gumshoe99
He was vegan
smegheadenergy
How to tell people you went to school in the Midwest without saying it
SgtDefaultGN
Central Canada checking in
litgeek306
Maine here, read all of them
RevolutionOnHerLips
read this in the south, idk why it would be a midwest-special thing
imakesoap
And my kids in CA
Username62611
I read this as a kid in Australia.
lazerfrog
Me too, maybe we went to school together!ether
Lycanthian
Lol I feel like midwesterners constantly think they have a thing that only happens in the Midwest and then it turns out it happens everywhere
jayhaJapeLord
I went to school in Canada. Read it in Canadian school. The river as well.
16bitStarbuck
Houston, here.
SillySnowFox
I still have my copy. And Brian's Winter
OverSpiced
Oh my nostalgia...
Miyamotofan
I read this book in school. Then we watched the movie and it was terrible.
RevolutionOnHerLips
I'm 42 and read it in grade school and I remember loving it but I couldn't tell you a damn thing about it today.. is that the one where the pilot is dead underwater and all gross and stuff?
etcnotect
Yes, that's the one. He survives on his own for a long time in the wilderness.
droolialogan8888
Everytime I have pain in my left shoulder I think it's a heart attack and this book is to blame
dangerspouse
Ha, that's awesome. Someone posted a year 8 reading list from 1992 yesterday and I was a bit surprised this wasn't on it.
ElbowDeepInTheElbowDeepBandwagon
Hello fellow 40 year old who still loves this book. I still have my copy from grade school and still read it every once in a while.
MonsoonPoultryHospital
I have unresolved trauma from the unnecessarily complicated activities we had to do in class for this damn book.
anotherdeadaquarian
Hahaha I love the subtext.
AlmostCertainlyNotPickles
I get this one and a few others mixed up. I think I can separate this one from My Side of the Mountain and Avalanche, but was this the one where he had to hunt the pear shaped birds with bow and arrow?
kahlzun
I always remember the "fool birds" that made a lot of noise when taking off
ThedawningofWankershim
And there's was an alternate universe sequel where he doesn't get rescued called Brian's Winter. Atleast I think. I read them uhhhh 15 years ago?
Etherealvalentine
That's definitely a book in my local library
jfred325350
My Side of the Mountain almost made me run away from home as a preteen back in the 90s lol. I loved that book.
AlmostCertainlyNotPickles
I went out to an empty lot down the street from our house and stayed for an hour or so
salbatan
Is My Side of the Mountain the one where he uses fire to hollow out a tree for shelter? That seemed like the coolest thing ever in 5th grade…
AlmostCertainlyNotPickles
He hollows out a tree, but I don't remember if he does it with fire. I do remember acorn bread though.
AgainstMethod
The big big difference between Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain is that the kid in Hatchet didn't intend to be there.
amoeba15
And in the My Side of the Mountain sequels his family joins in
Totallyscrewedinaustin
Yeah. And the airplane in the lake!
IridescentStrix
ewwww now I remember.... really creeped me out as a kid D:
NarratesTheDarkerStory
And a tornado? .... hits a cave? I'm a bit storm obsessed so I can't tell if it's just my child brain adding scenes to things as I daydreamt. I should reread some childhood classics.
Totallyscrewedinaustin
Think that happens in one of the sequels?
BlindGardener
That’s in the alternative sequel.
Diplocrap
Avalanche. I think about that book all the time. Seems like most people I’ve talked to have never heard of it.
amoeba15
Was that the ones where he lost toes when he was rescued?
AlmostCertainlyNotPickles
I remember him setting up an exercise regimen and at one point punching the smiley face calendar he was making in delirium
Diplocrap
I remember when he dropped the watch, and I knew it was the beginning of the end. Also, the heartache I felt as I read that!
richardstinks
What was the one where the kid lived with a badger? Y'all remember that one?
AlmostCertainlyNotPickles
Incident at Hawk's Hill?
richardstinks
YASS. Thank you.
BlindGardener
My side of the mountain.
aThingWithTheStufAndTheJunk
Those birds sounded so fucking delicious.
ironrooster
I actually thought this was "My Side of the Mountain" from the thumbnail. I remember really liking that, though it's been decades.
FoodSafetyTy
SAME! it was such a good book, and Misty’s Mountain I believe was the sequel?
SlyMrFox
My dad read it to me as a kid. Part of me still wants to build a small house in a tree trunk.
Etherealvalentine
Yes!! Can i live in the tree nearby as your neighbor?!
SlyMrFox
Hey, it's MY side of the mountain. jk
Etherealvalentine
XD okaaaayyyyy, okay! How about I get the other side of the mountain, and we meet up for picnics weekly at the peak?
ironrooster
Do it! Live the elementary school kid dream for us all! Be friend a hawk
scribetree
*peregrine falcon. And a raccoon.
AnniCannibal
Ngl, that's my zombie plan. Gtf outta dodge, find myself a nice copse of trees and fucking burrow down. Like a cross between that book and a trap spider
AnniCannibal
I can even hollow out a trunk over time to work as a flue for a modest fireplace
SometimesISayHistoryStuff
Anyone else remember the bit where he enters the plane and sees the fish-eaten remains of the pilot? For whatever reason that's the part that stuck with me.
discitus
That's one of the few things I remember from the story. My imagination made it quite vivid.
cowscowscows
My 4th grade teacher read Hatchet aloud and skipped that chapter, but we all noticed, and it became The Forbidden Chapter that we all read with extra attention anyway.
ADDGirl
I don't remember much from that book, but I do remember that.
IridescentStrix
ugh, my poor child brain dwelled on that for so long D:
Fawin
I remember reading this in middle school. The teacher was so surprised that we all liked it he got us to read the sequel.
emptymonty
So he survived ? Thanks for the spoiler alert.
veritas1980
same! also, "My Side of the Mountain."
OmegaNorthArt
Frightfuls mountain
LetheTheArtificer
Those two books pretty much convinced me to run away and live in the wilderness. The longing is still up there, it's only just held at bay by forced practicality.
ibrokemyselflmao
YASSSSS
MetalGifs4u
Hatchet 2: 2 Hatchets
machenbitcoin
Confirmed ❤️
4chanrefugee
There were 33 of us in class and only 32 books. I got to read Canyons instead. That was a mindbang to read as a child. Hatchet is phenomenal though, read it as an adult.
machenbitcoin
Canyons was so good! I think I went and found it after reading Hatchet.
memefarmer69
Plus 1 for mind bang
Norinatsu
There’s a sequel?
Fawin
Yeah, I think it's called "The River" where a writer asks Paul to go out into the wilderness again so that he can write a survival guide based on Paul's experience. There's also an alternate ending sequel where Paul was not rescued and has to survive the winter "Paul's Winter" I think is what it's called.
Johannason
I remember Hatchet as well. Didn't care for it. Automatically didn't like any book I was forced to read. Especially since it would be the same book year after year. "A Day No Pigs Would Die" at least four years in a row. And then its sequel, which I think was "The Pigman" and didn't seem even tangentally related.
Johannason
I know more about Haven Peck than I do about my own father.
Fawin
Somehow in high school I got stuck reading Macbeth every year. And somehow, I was the only one in each class that already read it. 4 years of MacBeth. Oddly enough, it's my favorite of Shakespeare.
Johannason
Romeo and Juliet, every year, every version. One teacher even made us watch the Leonardo Di Caprio version and fast-forwarded through the sex scenes. To its credit, "Bring me my Longsword" hits different when it's a big-ass pistol.
ameranthe
Yeah, we read this in school in 6th grade. I remember writing a book report about it. I still remember the scene where he dives to the plane to get supplies and sees the corpse of the pilot.
AnAverageBoxEnthusiast
ive never read it.... should i?
jrredneck
StewedTomaters
I forgot about all of those themes. I just remember the milk scene.
jrredneck
There are 5 total in the series. "Hatchet", "The River", "Brian's Winter", and "Brian's Hunt". IMHO the best childrens adventure series. They should do movies about these at some point.
Norinatsu
There is a movie from hatchet! We seen it in school! Don’t remember much aside from him swimmin in the lake.
Haikari
They did, for the first one anyway. I think it was a "made for tv" special.
CreatureFromtheBlackLegume
Why would you want them to ruin a perfectly good book with a movie?
jrredneck
The book will never be ruined in my eyes.
pocketflan
Thank you. I assumed the sequel was just called “Hatchet: Part Deux”
QuarkCharmer
Either you're bad at counting or you missed one.
jrredneck
Shit.... "Brian's Return" goes between Winter and Hunt.
Mechman13
They also did actually make a movie, we watched it in class in 2nd grade until the pilots dead face popped up when he swims out to the plane https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Lx2V6gNZQ
jrredneck
Thats the first time I have heard if it.
Tumescentpie
I'll bet there is a rights issue or the first movie didn't do well enough for them to want to revisit the idea. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cry_in_the_Wild
Tumescentpie
Oh wait they made a bunch of them
jordanmanguy
Yeah this is insane! I'm binging them all soon
Fawin
They did a made for TV movie of the first one. We watched the first few minutes of it in class before the VCR broke.
depdk
as a Kid I liked the part where he has to dive back into the lake, work around the corpse of the pilot (which is being eaten by fish) and rummage through the plane underwater.
julianmurphy92
Hmm I can't say that was what excited me most about the book, but different strokes for different folks. I was more hooked on the wilderness survival aspect of the book.
spookyu
The two things that still are vivid for me are the trees cracking and exploding from frozen sap/wind...and the description of his little cave hut thing. Been like ....probably 25 years since I read them lol. It honestly sparked an interest in me in the outdoors and general survivalism.
armagetz
Also, if you want the story with a sci fi twist, read the Transall saga. Same author.
msdss
I thought the sequel was a little w/e. The same kid happens to have the same kind of shit happen twice? What are the other 3 about?
thatpatguy
I don't remember all of them but Brian's Winter is just an alternate ending to the first where he had to survive through the winter as well.
MoonyT
if i remember right, in one of them he went back out into the wilderness with like a reporter to show/tell him what it was like, and the interviewer gets like injured, maybe paralyzed and he has to drag them back to civilization. one of them was what if he didnt get rescued and had to survive longer.
Fawin
Yeah that's the sequel. The reporter was hit by lightning or something. So he has to make a raft and take him down the river to find help.
Sageypie
Wasn't even aware that there were sequels. Thought it was pretty self contained in The Hatchet, what with him getting rescued and reflecting back on how weird the modern world felt to him after what he'd been through.
KhalDingo
Read this around 4th grade. Loved it. Didn't know about the rest. Gonna have to get them. Thank you!!