Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen

Brian's Winter is an alternate ending to Hatchet. It's a full length book that happens after most of the events on Hatchet, except that instead of finding a working emergency transmitter, in Brian's Winter he only finds the rest of the gear. So instead of getting rescued, the book picks up right at the beginning of autumn heading into winter.

I have two teacher friends that I've talked to about Hatchet and Brian's Winter. Amanda loves them both. She's big into outdoor life and survivalism but there is also an element of nostalgia when she talks about them. Chad on the other hand hates Hatchet. His big criticism is the improbability of it all and the impracticality. He is also big into outdoorsmanship. I suspect that he read them at a more mature age than Amanda.

Chad is correct though. Several things that Brian does in the books just wouldn't work. I don't think a bit of nylon windbreaker would function very well as a bow string. Learning to spear/shoot fish would take longer. And Brian does have a phenomenal amount of good luck. A ridiculous amount really, but unlike Chad, that doesn't much bother me. Fiction always requires suspension of disbelief.

I like the idea that one could live, at least a while, stranded out in the while. It's a terrifying prospect, yet it's interesting too. I like that this a YA book where the protagonist constantly faces a problems and then thinks his way through them. It's refreshing. No one saves him. He figures it out and works hard. There are worse things the kids could be reading.