Brian's Winter

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Summary: Review of Brian's Winter
Review: This story is about a young boy stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash. It tells about his struggles to survive on his own during the rough winter months. I have not yet read The Hatchet so I was unsure of why the boy was on the plane or the cause of the crash. I also wanted to know how old the boy was supposed to be. I enjoyed reading the book because I love nature. I felt a close relationship to Brian as I read because I share the character's feelings about killing animals. I am not fond of hunting, and I think I would have a difficult time killing animals myself, even if my life depended on it. Gary Paulson did a great job of expressing Brian's compassion for the animals he had to kill. Brian always felt good and bad at the same time whenever he was successful at hunting an animal. He never wasted anything. He used the animal hides, meat, and bones, and he did not hunt unless he absolutely needed to. Although I liked this story very much, I have some criticisms. (However, let it be known that I do not in any way profess to be able to do a better job than the author.) I felt like Brian's survival was a little too easy for a child being stranded in the wilderness all alone. Parts were quite unbelievable. Brian was almost always successful when hunting, and did not have to worry about starvation much. He was able to make a shelter, clothing, and weapons without too much difficulty. I know I would have a difficult time trying to make these things on my own with limited materials and I am a grown woman. I think his rescue at the end was somewhat of a letdown because it was not very exciting or suspenseful. There were some very good, suspenseful parts in the middle of the story. The parts I liked the most were when Brian encountered the bear, the skunk, and the moose. I also liked the part when Brian saw a moose being attacked by a wolf. This part tore at my heart because of the description of how the moose was suffering. I found it interesting to learn about how the trees explode when they freeze. I have never heard of anything like that before. I read this book for my Children's Literature class. I had to read a contemporary realistic fiction book, and my son had this one in his room. When I asked him about the book, he said it was good. Coming from him you can take that as a great compliment because he has never really liked reading fiction stories. I can see why this book is used in a junior high language class. It is about a child, who is probably about the same age as those reading the story, being in charge of his own destination. It can lead to good discussions about what is really necessary and important in life. The children can analyze Brian's decisions and actions and discuss alternative solutions or problems that could have occurred in this kind of a story. They can create their own survival or problem solving situations to work out in small groups or even create a new adventure for Brian or a new ending to the story ( a new rescue).

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Summary: A GOOD BOOK
Review: Brain is still in the woods. He notices that winter is coming. He is right, in no time the air cools and winter is upon him. He builds a door for his shelter and seals his shelter with dried mud from the lake. He makes himself a big bow and calls it the war bow. He go`s out to test his "War bow" and finds a moose. He shoots the moose with a little arrow, but the arrow doesn`t go through all the way, and the enraged moose turns and charges at Brian. Brain dodges the mosse but the huge cow comes back for more. This time the moose hits him but stops before it could hit him again. All of a sudden the moose just flops down on Brian. Brain see`s that the spear he made went through the cows neck. Brian skins the moose and eats it, for what seem eternity. One day Brian sees a straight line in the snow. He follows it and sees a cabin in the middle of the woods. An actual person comes out of the cabin...

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Summary: GREAT!!!!!!
Review: THIS BOOK IS A MUST READDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!

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Summary: Brian's Winter, a wonderful book.
Review: I first heard about Brian's Winter when my teacher gave every student a copy the day before winter break. I am not a very bookish person, so I only read books that I tremendously like from the first chapter. This book was one of the rare books that captivated me on the first page. Without warning, Brian was involved in a horrible plane crash. He sustained no injuries, and afterwards he also survived on the isolated lake grounds for a very long time. I was very interested in all of Brian's weapons, his Native American ways of survival, and his hunting skills. I had tried reading Hatchet but it didn't really interest me. A good strategy to get yourself reading more is to read the second book in a series to get all the excitment right away, then read the first in the series. I was really impressed by Brian's way of survival in the wilderness. It was very suspenseful and exciting when Brian had to put up somewhat of a fight against some of his larger prey. I just couldn't put the book down. I admired Brian's way of life so much, that now one of my favorite things to do is to hunt rabbits and set traps for birds. In conclusion, Brian's Winter was filled with excitement, suspense, and emotion.

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Summary: Brian's Winter
Review: Brian is a 14 year old teenager who was in a plane that crashed and no one survived but him. He makes a shelter and hunts for food to stay alive. But what he doesnt know is that a harsh winter is in store for him with temperatures below -20 degrees. I recommend this book to the readers who like reading stories that take place in the outdoors. It is also a good book for readers who enjoy survival books.

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Summary: An excellent book!
Review: Gary Paulsan's Brian's Winter is an excellent book. I never put it down. It is about a thiteen-year old boy whos plane crashes in the a cold forest. In the forest he learns a lot from the animals. He has lots of journeys, hunting, fishing, building a shelter, and lots of other things. My favorite part was when Brian hunted down a moose.

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Summary: Brains Winter: a review
Review: Gary paulson is the writer of many good books. This I feel is not one. While the adventure is good, and the ways he survives is dumbfounding, everything is very scripted. When he is abouyt to starve, he finds food. When you begin this book, dont expect him to die. It is after all a childrens book. But when I picked it up and looked at the cover and saw some reviews, I expected a little more from the award winning Paulson.

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Summary: Brians Winter
Review: In this book (Brians Winter) brian is the main character and he is stuck out in the canadian wilderness. The problem is winter is coming and he is not prepared yet. Then he builds a shelter out of logs and packs the gaps with mud and twigs. Brian makes a bow and he shoots birds and rabbits for food. He stlill has a problem, he can only shoot small animals. So he makes a bigger bow for bigger animals. After that he realized it was getting colder. The next day there was snow on the ground. Brian was clearing the snow out from infront of the shelter and he saw foot frints in the snow. It was then that Brian realized that there are other people there. Brian falowed the tracks, found the people, and he was saved.

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Summary: Survival of the Fittest
Review: In Brian's Winter, Paulsen does as many of his fans requested--leaves Brian in the harsh Canadian wilderness for the duration of the winter instead of rescued at the end of the summer as in Hatchet. Brian's survival instincts are already honed when Brian's Winter opens, but as the weather gets cooler and then colder, Brian realizes that he has to totally change the way that he has been surviving. He needs warm clothes, a way to build a fire inside of his shelter, and meat for the winter. The way that city boy Brian copes with these and other survival problems will captivate you and leave you admiring his resourcefulness. Although the book was written with adolescent males in mind, I found the book a page-turner and could not wait to see how it ended! It is great reading and I cannot wait to read the other Brian novels.

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Summary: Excellent review from 4th/5th class in Round Valley, CA
Review: All students enjoyed this book during the oral reading time in my 4th/5th grade class. The gritty realism was especially gripping for the boys, most of whom dislike reading. I would imagine that some parents in more sheltered communities might dislike the constant descriptions of hunting, weapons manufacture and skinning game. My kids had no problems, though. Some student reviews: Cris - "It has challenging words for kids and teachers." Alex - "It is a good book and very exciting." Anna - "It tells how to survive in the woods and how to hunt animals." My favorite review is from Tyson - "You can learn to survive in the wild if you had a plane crash."