Guts
What do you do when you're being charged by a red-eyed furious wall of  brown fur that is an insane moose? How do you make a weapon with your bare  hands? How do you sneak up on a grouse or a rabbit, kill it with a well-aimed  arrow, and cook it over a fire--without a pot? All this and lots more is  essential learning for Brian Robeson, the young wilderness survivor in Gary  Paulsen's classic novelHatchet. In writing that book,  Paulsen was determined that everything that happened to Brian--the survival  techniques and the physical and emotional traumas--would be drawn closely from  reality and his own experiences. InGutshe reveals the stories behindHatchet, as he lived them. Linked to specific incidents from Brian's  ordeal are the skills and insights Paulsen learned as a teenager passionately in  love with hunting in the north woods of Minnesota, the extremes of exhaustion  and cold he knew in running the Iditarod dog races in Alaska, the chilling  close-up knowledge of heart attacks from his experiences as a volunteer  ambulance driver, the silence and majesty of the wilderness. Some great stories  are told here: the child killed by two kicks from the razor-sharp hooves of a  small deer, the difficulties of sharing a rescue helicopter ride with a  terrified dog team, and some spectacular gross-outs about the nutritional need  to eat every part of an animal.Hatchetfans will be agog, and parents  and teachers will be thrilled to see the enthusiastic reaction of even the most  reluctant readers. (Ages 10 to 14)--Patty Campbell--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.