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Note: This section may include reviews for related titles (e.g., same author, series, or related edition).

From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Obsessed with private insights as to why his parents got divorced, Brian forces aside his efforts at personal emotional survival to literally live through the aftermath of the private plane crash which killed the pilot who was taking him to visit his dad. Like Robinson Crusoe, the boy manages, but with only one tool—a hatchet. The title symbolizes both the effect of the divorce and Brian's means of survival. (Age 14 and older)

CCBC Choices 1987 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1987. Used with permission.

From School Library Journal

April 1, 2021

Gr 5-9-This series takes popular novels and works historical facts around them. Each book opens with a brief synopsis of the fiction title and a short biography of the author. Then the facts are exposed. Snippets of the stories are interspersed with nonfiction. Report writers who read the books will find much fodder here for research. The writing and illustrations work together to engage readers. Sections on discussion questions and writing prompts and projects are great for classroom use. VERDICT Students who enjoyed the novels will like reading about actual events and settings. These are solid choices, especially for school libraries.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from November 18, 2002

The author here spells out the incidents in his own life that appear in Hatchet
and its sequels. Ages 12-up.

From Publisher's Weekly

October 1, 1988
This Newbery Honor book is a dramatic, heart-stopping story of a boy who, following a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness, must learn to survive with only a hatchet and his own wits. Ages 12-up.

From Publisher's Weekly

September 1, 1987
When the pilot of a small, two-person plane has a heart attack and dies, Brian has to crash land in the forest of a Canadian wilderness. He has little time to realize how alone he is, because he is so busy just trying to survive. And learning to survive, to plan on food not just for a day but untiland ifhe is rescued, only begins when he stops pitying himself and understands that no one can help him. He is on his own, without his divorced father, whom he was to visit, or his mother, whom Brian saw kissing another man before the divorce. This is a heart-stopping story: it seems that at every moment Brian is forced to face a life-and-death decision, and every page makes readers wonder at the density of descriptive detail Paulsen has expertly woven together. Poetic texture and realistic events are combined to create something beyond adventure, a book that plunges readers into the cleft of the protagonist's experience. Ages 11-13.

From AudioFile Magazine

Brian Robeson, the sole passenger in a single-engine plane, is on his way to visit his father in the Canadian oil fields when his pilot suffers a heart attack. Alone and desperate, Brian guides the plane to a landing on an isolated lake. In a straightforward but compelling narration, Coyote captures Brian's terror, anguish and exultation as he learns to survive alone in the wilderness. Abridgment is imperceptible. Musical effects underscore an air of suspense, mystery and dread. D.M.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine