Showing results by author "Gary Paulsen" in All Categories

Newbery Award-winner Gary Paulsen's best-known book comes to audio in this breathless, heart-gripping drama about a boy pitted against the wilderness with only a hatchet and a will to live. On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness.

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.

In 1848, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket was kidnapped from an Oregon-bound wagon train by a Pawnee hunting party. But a one-armed mountain man named Mr. Grimes quickly rescued him and hid him from the hostile tribe. After a year in the mountain wilderness with Mr. Grimes, Francis decides to strike out on his own—to follow the dangerous trail to Oregon and find his family. Francis thinks he can handle just about anything—buffalo stampedes, gun-toting outlaws, and even the constant threat of tribal attacks.

In Hatchet, 13-year-old Brian Robeson learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed only with his hatchet. Finally, as millions 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.

Every time Kevin Spencer sees Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful Girl in the World, he’s in danger of tripping, falling, and making a fool of himself. He can hardly say a word to her. But Kev knows he’d be the perfect boyfriend for Tina. He’s not bragging. Just pointing out the obvious. Kev decides to take a scientific approach to getting a date with Tina. After all, love is based on chemistry. When new kid Cash Devine zeroes in on Tina, Kevin hustles to find the formula that will make her forget all about Cash.

Fueled by a passion for running dogs, Gary Paulsen entered the Iditarod - the 1,180-mile sled-dog race through the Alaskan wilderness - in dangerous ignorance and with a fierce determination. For 17 days, he and his team of dogs endured blinding wind, snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, hallucinations - and the relentless push to go on.

Fifteen-year-old Francis Tucket has been searching for his parents ever since Pawnees kidnapped him from their wagon train on the Oregon Trail. He owes his survival to a one-armed mountain man, Jason Grimes, who came to his rescue. Now Francis owes his life to the mountain man once again. Unfortunately, it's a debt he'll never be able to repay. Grimes is killed defending Francis and his young friends, Lottie and Billy, from a band of marauding robbers.

It is 1848, and Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family. Yesterday he celebrated his 14th birthday on the tailgate of a Conestoga wagon in the foothills of the Rockies. Today, he is going to practice with his new birthday present, a Lancaster rifle. Falling far behind the wagon train, Francis loses sight of his family and is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians.

In 1848, Francis Tucket was stolen from his family while they were travelling west along the Oregon Trail. After his escape, he spent a year learning the ways of the land from a one-armed mountain man. Trying to catch up with his family again, Francis found two stranded children, Lottie and Billy. Together, they're facing the dangers of the old West while making their way to Oregon.

In 1944, a little boy travels to Minnesota to live with his grandma, a Norwegian-American woman who cooks for the men who are building a road to Canada. Award-winning storyteller Gary Paulsen reveals the boy’s adventures with poignant honesty and adventurous spirit.

“I’m 11-years-old, from the city, and my parents are mean alcoholics. One day the deputy takes me away to live with some distant relatives on their sprawling farm in the country. At the Larsen farm, I meet my Uncle Knute and Aunt Clair and their two children, Glennis and her wild brother Harris. I also meet Louie, the crusty old guy who works as a farmhand and steals all the pancakes at breakfast. Harris introduces me to life on the farm, and it proves to be a rude awakening."

Henry Mosley decides that he and his pals Riley and Reed need to go on some earth-shaking adventures and make a name for themselves. Henry is the mastermind; Riley’s the researcher who’s prepared for anything. And somehow fearful Reed always ends up with the scariest, craziest assignments.

Gary Paulsen’s slapstick tales capture the “wonderful madness” of growing up in a small town in northern Minnesota, when high spirits, showing off for girls, and general idiocy led Gary and his pals to attempt some amazing stunts! Wacky, daring, just plain nuts - extreme sports lead to extreme fun in new stories from Gary’s boyhood.

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.

Fourteen-year-old Finn is a loner, living with his dad and his amazing dog, Dylan. This summer Finn is hoping for a job where he doesn’t have to talk to anyone except his buddy, Matthew. Then he meets Johanna, who’s living next door. She’s a graduate student in her 20s, cool and funny, and she treats Finn as an equal. Dylan thinks she’s great too. Johanna’s dealing with breast cancer, and Matthew and Finn help take care of her - and come to care for her.

Family fun takes center stage in three-time Newbery Honor winner Gary Paulsen’s hilarious novel for middle-school boys. Kevin Spencer is the glue that holds his family together. When his wacky relatives decide to have a double wedding in the backyard, Kevin takes charge. Planning two weddings is a great way to impress his girlfriend, Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful and Best-Smelling Girl in the World.

Every winter, John Borne looked forward to the days when he and his grandfather headed into the snowy Minnesota woods to hunt together. John admired the reverent, familiar way the old man had with the woods. But this year his grandfather is dying and 13-year-old John must make the hunt alone. Without his beloved grandfather, the hunt is cold and lonely—until John spots the doe watching and waiting for him in the clearing. She is an easy target, but as John raises his rifle to shoot, he knows he cannot kill the vulnerable creature.

Life on the Waller plantation is harsh and bleak. Twelve-year-old Sarny knows that it won’t be long before she will be forced to leave Mammy and join the other young women who serve the master’s household as breeders. Then one day a new slave arrives, bought from an overseer for a thousand dollars. He comes in a bad way, walking in front of the horses and Waller’s ready whip. His back is covered with scars as thick as Sarny’s hand, but he holds his head high.

Francis Tucket’s life has been exciting ever since his family headed to Oregon in a wagon train. First he was kidnapped by Pawnee Indians. Then Mr. Grimes, a one-armed mountain, man rescued him and taught him wilderness survival skills. Later when Francis set off alone to find his parents on the Oregon Trail, he ended up rescuing two young children stranded in the barren land.

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. But 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”.