If you’re looking for some quality, meaningful reading material for tweens and teens this summer, look no further than Gary Paulsen’s Brian’s Saga series. Newbery Honor book Hatchet is the first in the series, which includes five books in all: every one of them rated 4.5/5 stars. This series is like the classics of old: filled with adventure, pitting the young protagonist against forces of nature and man so he emerges stronger and wiser.
Hatchet (currently priced at $6.99)
This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared—and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present—and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent’s divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair—it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.
The River (currently priced at $6.73)
These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for 54 days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived.
Now the government wants him to go back into the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept Brian alive.
Soon the project backfires, though, leaving Brian with a wounded partner and a long river to navigate. His only hope is to build a raft and try to transport the injured man a hundred miles downstream to a trading post–if the map he has is accurate.
Brian’s Winter (currently priced at $9.99)
In Hatchet, 13-year-old Brian Robeson learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed only with his hatchet. Finally, as millions of readers know, he was rescued at the end of the summer.
But what if Brian hadn’t been rescued? What if he had been left to face his deadliest enemy–winter?
Gary Paulsen raises the stakes for survival in this riveting and inspiring story as one boy confronts the ultimate test and the ultimate adventure.
Brian’s Return (currently priced at $8.72)
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 in civilization, he can’t find a way to make sense of high school life.
He feels disconnected, more isolated than he did alone in the North.
The only answer is to return-to “go back in”—for only in the wilderness can Brian discover his true path in life, and where he belongs.
Brian’s Hunt (currently priced at $8.72)
Millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, Brian’s Winter, and Brian’s Return know that Brian Robeson is at home in the Canadian wilderness. He has stood up to the challenge of surviving alone in the woods. He prefers being on his own in the natural world to civilization.
When Brian finds a dog one night, a dog that is wounded and whimpering, he senses danger. The dog is badly hurt, and as Brian cares for it, he worries about his Cree friends who live north of his camp.
His instincts tell him to head north, quickly. With his new companion at his side, and with a terrible, growing sense of unease, he sets out to learn what happened. He sets out on the hunt.
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