Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.

At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills--how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire--and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.

In the Newbery Honor-winning Hatchet, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed only with his hatchet. As millions of readers know, he was rescued at the end of the summer. But what if that hadn't happened? What if Brian had been left to face his deadliest enemy--winter?

Brian Paulsen raises the stakes for survival in this riveting and inspiring story as one boy confronts the ultimate adventure.

Paulsen picks Hatchet's story up in midstream; read together, the two books make his finest tale of survival yet. --Kirkus Reviews, Starred

Breathtaking descriptions of nature . . . Paulsen fans will not be disappointed. --School Library Journal

Read all the Hatchet Adventures
Brian's Winter
The River
Brian's Return
Brian's Hunt

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.

At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills--how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire--and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.

As millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, and Brian's Winter know, Brian Robeson survived alone in the wilderness by finding solutions to extraordinary challenges. But now that's he's back to ordinary life, he can't make sense of high school life. He feels disconnected, more isolated than he did alone in the north woods. How can Brian discover his true path in life, and where he belongs? The answer is to return.

Gay Paulsen skillfully explores the meaning of belonging and purpose, and reminds us of a crucial rule of the wilderness: expect the unexpected.

Bold, confident and persuasive. --Publishers Weekly, Starred

Paulsen bases many of his protagonist's experiences on his own, and the wilderness through which Brian moves is vividly observed. --Kirkus Reviews, Starred

Read all the Hatchet Adventures
Brian's Winter
The River
Brian's Return
Brian's Hunt

Two years after Brian Robeson survived fifty-four days alone in the Canadian wilderness, the government wants him to head back so they can learn what he did to stay alive. This time Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, will accompany him. But a freak storm leaves Derek unconscious. Brian's only hope is to transport Derek a hundred miles down the river to a trading post. He's survived with only a hatchet before--now can Brian build a raft and navigate an unknown river?

For the first time it's not only Brian's survival that's at stake. . .

An IRA-CBC Children's Choice
A Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year

Vividly written, a book that will, as intended, please the readers who hoped that Paulsen, like Brian, would 'do it again.' --Kirkus Reviews

Read all the Hatchet Adventures
Brian's Winter
The River
Brian's Return
Brian's Hunt

Fueled by a passion for running dogs, Gary Paulsen entered the Iditarod--the eleven-hundred-and-eight-mile sled-dog race through the Alaskan wilderness--in dangerous ignorance and with a fierce determination. For seventeen days, he and his team of dogs endured blinding wind, snowstorms, frostbite, dog fights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, hallucinations--and the relentless push to go on. Winterdance is the enthralling account told by the best author of man-against-nature adventures writing today (Publishers Weekly).

Gary Paulsen expertly delivers a riveting story that brilliantly combines two of his great themes: the human animal's place in nature, and the mysterious and wonderful bond between humans and dogs.

The Brian books reveal nature and humankind's place in it with spare prose that seems ideally suited to the setting and plot. --VOYA

Based on real incidents, this well-written sequel to Hatchet and its successors will be gobbled up by the author's legions of fans. --Kirkus Reviews

Read all the Hatchet Adventures
Brian's Winter
The River
Brian's Return
Brian's Hunt

But the war comes to them. British soldiers and Iroquois attack. Samuel's parents are taken away, prisoners. Samuel follows, hiding, moving silently, determined to find a way to rescue them. Each day he confronts the enemy, and the tragedy and horror of this war. But he also discovers allies, men and women working secretly for the patriot cause. And he learns that he must go deep into enemy territory to find his parents: all the way to the British headquarters, New York City.

The stunning New York Times bestseller from three-time Newbery Honor winner and survival story master Gary Paulsen, whose books have sold over 35 million copies worldwide. Set centuries ago along a rugged coastline, Northwind does for the ocean what Hatchet does for the woods, as it relates the story of a young person's battle to stay alive against the odds, where the high seas meet a northern wilderness.

Wondrous . . . A grand and worthy journey. --The New York Times Book Review

★ Destined to become another Paulsen classic. --School Library Journal, starred review

When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea. With hints of Nordic mythology and an irresistible narrative pull, Northwind is Gary Paulsen at his captivating, adventuresome best.

More Accolades and Praise for Northwind:

A Best Book of the Year from The New York Times ● Wall Street Journal ● Kirkus Reviews ● Publishers Weekly

★ Beautifully written, it's classic Paulsen at his best. --Booklist, starred review

★ A timeless and irresistible adventure that has resilience at its heart. --Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ [A] mesmerizing modern-day epic. --Shelf Awareness, starred review

Don't miss Gary Paulsen's other acclaimed books from Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers: his riveting memoir Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood and the father-son comedy How to Train Your Dad.

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.

At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills--how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire--and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother's infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.

At first consumed by despair and self-pity, Brian slowly learns survival skills--how to make a shelter for himself, how to hunt and fish and forage for food, how to make a fire--and even finds the courage to start over from scratch when a tornado ravages his campsite. When Brian is finally rescued after fifty-four days in the wild, he emerges from his ordeal with new patience and maturity, and a greater understanding of himself and his parents.

Gary Paulsen, three-time Newbery Honor author, is no stranger to adventure. He has flown off the back of a dogsled and down a frozen waterfall to near disaster, and waited for a giant bear to seal his fate with on

The shooting war turned out to be the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival; how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different; he was only 19, but he was a man with soldier's heart, later known as battle fatigue.

A mesmerizing memoir from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen--whose books have sold over 35 million copies worldwide--giving readers a new perspective on the origins of his blockbuster contemporary classic Hatchet and other famed survival stories.

Leaves you gritting your teeth and clutching the pages . . . Haunted me as a reader. --The New York Times Book Review

★ This literary treasure is written for book lovers of any age. --Shelf Awareness, starred review

His name is synonymous with high-stakes wilderness survival adventures. Now, beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen, he may never have become a reader. And without his desperate teenage enlistment in the Army, he would not have discovered his true calling as a storyteller.

An entrancing and critically lauded account of grit and growing up, perfect for newcomers and lifelong fans alike, Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood is literary legend Gary Paulsen at his rawest and realest.

Don't miss Gary Paulsen's other acclaimed books from Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers: the father-son comedy How to Train Your Dad and the page-turning survival adventure Northwind.

For John Borne's family, hunting has nothing to do with sport or manliness. It's a matter of survival. Every fall John and his grandfather go off into the woods to shoot deer and put meat on the table over the long Minnesota winter.

But this year, John's grandfather is dying, and John must hunt alone. John tracks a doe for two days, but as he closes in on his prey, he realizes he cannot shoot her. For John, the hunt is no longer about killing, but about life.

If I'd known what was coming, I might have climbed on my mower and putted all the way home to hide in my room. But the lawn business grew and grew. So did my profits, which Arnold invested in many things. And one of them was Joey Pow the prizefighter. That's when my 12th summer got really interesting.

A teen boy wants to trade in the noise of his contemporary world for the song of nature and the old ways in this poignant young adult adventure.

Something is bothering Russel Susskit. He hates waking up to the sound of his father's coughing, the smell of diesel oil, the noise of snow machines starting up.

Only Oogruk, the shaman who owns the last team of dogs in the village, understands Russel's longing for the old ways and the songs that celebrated them. But Oogruk cannot give Russel the answers he seeks; the old man can only prepare him for what he must do alone.

Driven by a strange, powerful dream of a long-ago self and by a burning desire to find his own song, Russel takes Oogruk's dogs on an epic journey of self-discovery that will change his life forever.

From the legendary author of Hatchet, a laugh-out-loud misadventure about a boy, his free-thinking dad, and the puppy-training pamphlet that turns their summer upside down.

Twelve-year-old Carl is fed up with his father's single-minded pursuit of an off-the-grid existence. His dad may be brilliant, but dumpster-diving for food, scouring through trash for salvageable junk, and wearing clothes fully sourced from garage sales is getting old. Increasingly worried about what schoolmates and a certain girl at his new school might think of his circumstances--and encouraged by his off-kilter best friend--Carl adopts the principles set forth in a randomly discovered puppy-training pamphlet to retrain his dad's mindset . . . a crackpot experiment that produces some very unintentional results.

This is a fierce and funny novel about family, green-living, and untangling some of the ties that bind from middle-grade master Gary Paulsen.