Brians Winter by Gary Paulson

Brian’s Winter

By Gary Paulson

I chose to read Brian’s Winter after reading Hatchet by Gary Paulson. I enjoyed that book so much I wanted to read another by the same author. It is nice because it has the same characters but also gives a lot more detail to the story.

I think this book is great and I would recommend it for anybody who is interested in adventure books with lots of twists and turns. It starts out by filling you in on what’s already happened in Hatchet. This was nice because it reminds you of things you might have forgotten.

The author chose to tell the story in seasons. I like this because it gives a good timeline to know when things are happening. It starts with the fall and during this time he’s trying to learn how to kill a large animal. To do this he has to think back in his memory to some arrows and arrowheads he saw when he was living in _______. I thought it was interesting to hear his thinking about what it would be like to kill an animal and how it bothered him but he knew he had to do it to survive. He was also attacked by a bear while he was sleeping so he was trapped in his sleeping bag. It was weird to think that Betty the skunk saved him from a big bear.

The main part of the story takes place during winter. One of the things Brian had to deal with was temperature. It says it was down to fifty below zero. I thought it was good to hear about how he dealt with this. He did it by making a chimney to keep fire in his shelter which I thought was really smart. He also had to deal with weather such as a blizzard and rain for several days straight. It was during this that he took time to work on his winter clothing and snow shoes which became essential to