I read the book, Brian's Return, which is the fourth out of five books in Brian's Saga. The Brian Saga is written by Gary Paulsen, who is an award winning author. This book was published by Dell Laurel-Leaf in 1999.
The only main character in “Brian's Return,” is Brian Robeson. He is 15 years old and loved the wilderness ever since his plane crashed and he had to learn to survive in it. He doesn't like the city that much because it is loud and busy, he would rather be in the Canadian wilderness where it is peaceful. Brian has great survival skills since he needs them to survive alone.
One day, Brian went to Mackey's Pizza Den with two of his friends. Carl, a large football player who did not like Brian because of his popularity, was there also. While Brian was about to walk in, Carl was about to walk out. Carl swung his shoulder into the door trying to hit Brian. Brian was standing too far off to the side and the door missed him. Instead the door hit his friend directly in the nose, which made that friend fall backwards. It hit Brian's other friend, making her fall and twist her knee. Blood was everywhere and his friends were hurt. Brian started to change after he saw his friends hurt. He turned into “Brian of the wilderness”, defending himself. Carl took a swing at Brian's head, and then Brian started attacking him continuously with the bottom of his palms. Soon Carl was hurt but Brian kept fighting until people took him off of Carl.
Police came quickly and brought Brian back to his house. Brian got counseling from a blind man named Caleb. Caleb said that Brian was defending himself and wasn't a bad kid. He wanted Brian to tell him stories of when he was in the wilderness. Brian kept going to Caleb for free. Brian was going to go back to the Canadian wilderness to see the Smallhorns. He promised Caleb that he was going to write to him.
Brian was going to be dropped off about 100 miles away from the Smallhorn's cabin, and then he was going to canoe the rest of the way. Brian's plane took off with two other fishermen, who were going fishing in the wilderness. The pilot let Brian off the plane and from there Brian started to canoe. He tried to go 15 miles a day. On one of his days, Brian was canoeing and out of nowhere, a deer jumped onto his boat. The deer was trying to jump into the water, because there were mosquitoes in its eyes. Instead it jumped onto Brian's canoe and flipped it over. The deer quickly got back on shore and ran away.
Brian made camp at a clearing and decided to go hunting with an arrow. He went past many animals that he could've killed. He didn't shoot them because he wanted to continue to hunt and glide through the wilderness. He finally killed a bird with a clean shot and then headed back to camp. When he got to camp, there was a guy sitting there with a canoe next to Brian's. It was a guy in his 50's who looked like he was in the wilderness a lot. Brian started up a fire and put his pot on it to cook the bird. The man and Brian didn't talk much, and they went to bed after they ate. When Brian got up the next day, the man was gone. He continued to canoe, and did well that day, probably going 30 miles. He was getting tired of paddling so he walked on the shore pulling the canoe, when he saw a bear.
The bear didn't run away from Brian like bears usually do. Instead, it just looked at him. Brian was getting nervous so he kept his canoe in between him and the bear. The bear lunged at him and Brian moved out of the way, keeping the canoe in between them. The bear was teasing him and working him like prey. Brian became angry and yelled “no,” that he was not going to be prey. The bear stopped, when Brian showed his anger, and Brian backed away slowly.
Brian had another day left until he reached the Smallhorns cabin. There was another river leading somewhere else so Brian decided to take that one. He thought that he could see the Smallhorns later and he wanted to explore the Canadian wilderness further.
I thought the best part of the book was when Brian met up with the bear. Brian saw the bear, but it didn't run away from him like bears do, but only stared at him. The bear lunged toward him and Brian jumped off to the other side. Then the bear stopped and watched, then again lunged at Brian. Brian moved to try and get across the stream. The bear lunged back, forcing Brian to go back to the shore. The bear was playing with Brian, then he got angry because the bear thought he was prey. After Brian yelled “no,” the bear backed down. Brian escaped on his canoe while he could.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure books. This is a good book about Brian's adventures being alone in the Canadian wilderness. I would also recommend this to everyone who likes the Brian Saga. This book is a good ending to Brian's third journey into the wilderness.
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