Why am I passionate about this?
When I think of great novels, I don’t recall plot twists, beautiful language, or exotic settings. I remember the characters. How they met or didn’t meet, the challenges put before them. Great, unforgettable characters create great stories. They take risks, become friends with people society tells them not to, and don’t hide their motivations or fears. They show their humanity. A great character can make walking down a supermarket aisle an exciting adventure. Boring, one-dimensional ones can make a rocket launch seem like you’re reading about paint drying. All the books I discuss hit the character checklist tenfold.
Jerry's book list on young people dealing with social and emotional trauma
Why did Jerry love this book?
In a way, my picking this book for this list is like me saying the Kansas City Chiefs are winners, it’s already a known fact.
The book’s main character, Brian Robeson, is a Crusoe after my own literary heart. When his plane crashes, I understand that the wreck he faces is no less than the one he left behind with his parent’s divorce. He must survive both and the guilt he feels, I feel, as he comes to terms with the dual tragedies. I felt every success Brian had hunting to survive and the emptiness of every failure.
For a long time after reading this, I never complained about small meals.
7 authors picked Hatchet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.
This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared—and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor. Hatchet has also been nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother’s infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother…