I read the book, “Brian's Winter”, which is the sequel to Hatchet. The author of Brian's Winter is Gary Paulsen, an award winning author. Dell Laurel-Leaf published this book in 1996.
The character in “Brian's Winter” is Brian Robeson. He is a 13 year old boy whose plane crashed on a lake while going to his dad's house. Brian has to figure out how to survive in the Canadian wilderness in winter. Being in the wilderness helped Brian learn survival techniques.
Brian survived the summer in the Canadian wilderness, but can he survive the winter without freezing to death? The weather slowly grew colder, but Brian didn't realize until the temperature really dropped from summer. Finally he realized that winter was coming, and that he needed to prepare. He filled in gaps in his shelter until it was air tight. He made his shelter so he could have his fire in it without getting smoked out. Brian thought that he needed a better weapon, so he made a stronger bow, which he called his “war bow.” He made stronger arrows to be used with the war bow. He found rock that he used as arrowheads. He also made a “killing lance” almost like a spear and really sharp at the end.
Brian knew that he wouldn't survive the winter with the clothes that he had on currently. So, he sewed many rabbit skins together and made a rabbit skin shirt. This kept him a lot warmer. When he was sitting outside by his fire, he saw two wolves run by him, with meat in their mouths. Brian figured there would be more meat left over, so he traced the way the wolves came from. He found a dead deer that, still had plenty of meat on the bones. Brian first skinned it, and then brought the meat back. He boiled a lot of meat that night and also ate a lot. He had food for a couple weeks.
The next day he opened his door to his little shelter, and saw a skunk. Brian froze. He remembered early in the summer when a skunk sprayed him so he was nervous. Brian waited. The skunk didn't spray him, so Brian slowly reached out to the food next to him and tossed a piece of venison out to the skunk. The skunk lowered its tail, grabbed the meat, and left. Brian realized the skunk only wanted food. Every day, for about another week, the skunk came back and did the same thing, and Brian fed it some more. Brian thought to himself that he almost had a pet skunk. Brian fell asleep for the night.
Brian woke up to his shelter falling over and a bear right next to him. Brian didn't have enough time to grab his killing lance. His bow was too big for the area. He was getting pushed around by the bear. The bear was looking for his food that was near him. Brian smelt a rotten smell and saw that the skunk sprayed the bear in its face. The bear left and was rubbing his head against the ground to get the smell off of him. Brian was thankful that the skunk was there. Brian wasn't hurt that bad, just a few bruises. He looked at his shelter and noticed that it was still in one piece, it had only fell from the wall. It didn't take him long to repair it.
Brian woke up to look outside and see white stuff all around him. It had snowed a few inches over the night. Brian boiled a breakfast of venison. He was getting low on food. He decided he was going to go hunting for something big, at least the size of a deer. He heard crackling of trees. It was something large, as a rabbit or mouse couldn't make that noise. He spied a cow moose. He waited for it to come closer and got his bow ready to shoot. He saw the whole cow's chest and shot. He hit it right in the middle of the chest. The moose didn't fall, but charged at Brian. It knocked him over, but he got back on his knees, holding his killing lance. The cow charged again and this time ran straight into the sharp tip of Brian's killing lance. This time the cow fell over dead.
Brian had to work fast to get the cow back to his camp. He started on one side of it, skinned that side, and pulled the meat off it. Then he brought that back to the camp. He and flipped it over and did the same to the other side. When he got the entire cow back to his camp, he thought that in front of him was the most meat he's ever sawn in one spot. He didn't have to worry about the skunk or a bear getting his meat, as they were hibernating. Brian had a few hundred pounds of meat. It would stay fresh in the snow.
Now that Brian had enough meat, he didn't have to hunt for a while. He thought of how he could get around in the snow better, without sinking and getting wet and cold. He thought of snowshoes. But how was he going to make them? He decided to use two bows for each shoe and fill in the inside so he could walk in them. His first try using them, landed him on his face. He rearranged them until he could walk in them without problems.
Now that Brian could walk without getting his feet wet and cold, he decided to walk around the woods. He brought his bow, some of his meat, and his killing lance. He saw an open area and a straight, man-made line in the distance. He walked toward it. He found a cabin with a family in it. They were trappers that came down to the wilderness every few weeks. He went and stayed with them. They got his stuff at his camp and Brian left on a plane that came every 6 weeks to deliver supplies to the trapper family.
The best part of the book was when Brian killed the moose. He saw the moose's legs, and then it came into his view. He shot at the chest of the moose with his war bow, but it didn't die. It only made the moose charge at him. The moose hit Brian and knocked him over, but Brian slowly got on his knees with his killing lance in his hand. The moose charged again, and ran straight into his sharp killing lance. That killed the moose with no doubt. Brian had to clean the moose up and take it back to his camp.
I would recommend this book to every one who likes adventure books. This is a good book about Brian's adventures in the Canadian wilderness. I would also recommend this to anyone who likes the Brian books. This book is a good end to Brian's first journey in the wilderness after the plane crash.
