HATCHET | Guts
by Gary Paulsen
In Guts, Gary Paulsen shares his real-life adventures and experiences, from working as an emergency ambulance worker to dog sled racing to living in the wilderness. This is Paulsen's response to thousands of fan letters asking how he came to write about Brian Robeson in Hatchet.
"I'm not sure exactly when, but at some point in my youth, in the wild, I decided that if it didn't grow or live in the woods I didn't want it. For a considerable time, in a very real way, I lived not unlike Brian in Hatchet. I would head into the woods with nothing but my bow and a dozen arrows..." (Guts, p. 117).
“So much of what I did as a boy came to be part of Brian–all of it, in some ways. I hope that Guts satisfies those readers who want to know more about Brian and my life.”
Gary Paulsen
Find Gary Paulsen's Guts in our school library!
GUTS
Want to meet a real-life survivor?
"Gary Paulsen has encountered many hair-raising and near-death experiences in his life, which makes him a first-rate survivor. He has witnessed a plane crash, volunteered on emergency missions, and run the challenging and dangerous Iditarod race in Alaska. He has made his home in the wilderness, on a sailboat, in a car, and on the streets. He knows firsthand what it takes to endure loneliness and fear. And Paulsen takes all of these experiences and hands them to Brian Robeson, his 13-year-old protagonist left to survive in the Canadian wilderness after the pilot of the small plane he is in dies of a heart attack."
--Pat Scales, Director of Library Services, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville, South Carolina