Brian Robeson is a thirteen year old boy, traveling by plane to visit his father far to the north in Canada, when the pilot has a sudden heart attack and dies. In his panic, Brian is only able to keep the plane steady until it runs out of fuel and crashes into a lake. Barely escaping from the wreck alive, Brian is at first in shock, but eventually his survival instincts take over and he begins to look for a way to keep himself alive, starting out with little more than the hatchet his mother gave to him as a present.
At first his goal is simply to stay alive for a few days, as he is sure that planes will be looking for him. While his early efforts are clumsy he quickly learns how to fend for himself, finding edible plants, devising methods to catch fish and eventually even game birds. Eventually he realizes that any rescue attempt must have been abandoned, but rather than surrendering to despair he resolves to continue living. His lessons at the hands of nature are often brutal, but each time he survives he comes out stronger and more in tune with the world, and with himself.
Brian, who started the story as a typical urban teenager, learns how to listen to and understand the sounds of the wilderness, how to see hidden prey, and how to react to dangers before becoming conscious of their presence. Ultimately, after enduring just about everything imaginable, Brian does come across a way back to civilization, though the experience in the wilderness leaves him forever changed.
Cited as the standard by which wilderness survival stories are judged, Hatchet has been a classic for over twenty years. The realistic setting and events of the story are known to appeal to many younger adolescents, as are the ingenuity and tenacity of the protagonist: teens like to imagine they'd be as resourceful and successful as Brian was.
The book is written in simple language which, while not contemporary, is also not terribly dated despite the age of the text. It is simple to read, with a fast pace and frequent action that maintains interest throughout. The reader is always kept wondering how Brian will overcome the most recent threat to his safety, and when salvation comes at the end it is almost as shocking to the reader as it is to Brian himself.
One weak point is the seemingly extraneous sub-plot involving Brian's memories about the reasons why his parents separated. For a time it seems that his primary motivation for survival is so that he can get to his father and tell him what he knows, but by the end of the book, despite several flashbacks revealing the nature of "The Secret", Brian never does tell his father, making these sequences seem like strange interruptions to the narrative about Brian enduring life in the wilderness. These interludes are short, however, and do not unduly distract the reader from the plot.
It is no surprise to me that this book has remained popular among younger teens for so long. The story has a timeless quality to it, in part due to the infrequent dialogue and remote setting which would be very similar now as it would have been in 1987 when the book was written. That said, it might not appeal to everyone. Older readers are sure to doubt the likelihood that a 13 year old boy from a city would be able to think of and accomplish all the feats that Brian manages to in order to survive, and even some readers in the target age range may prefer books with more dialogue and interpersonal interactions. Still, survival stories have remained popular among readers in the 6th-8th grade range, and this book would count as among the best in the genre for that age group, so for them I would certainly recommend it.
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