Episode 61: Hatchet

Hatchet

On Episode 61 of SSR, we’re taking to the Canadian wilderness — but unlike thirteen-year-old Brian in Gary Paulsen’s 1987 Newbery Honor-winning novel Hatchet, we’re not going alone. It’s a team effort to journey through the many conversations that come with this book! Tune in to hear us talk about the way Hatchet busted the “boy/girl book dichotomy” when we were kids, Paulsen’s presentation of trauma, and how shocked we were to realize as adults that we’d missed Brian’s suicide attempt when we read the book years ago. We also fangirl over Paulsen’s beautiful writing and chat about what makes certain children’s books stand up as classics, while others do not.

Follow author Sara Faring on Instagram (@sarafaring) and Twitter (@sarafaring).

CHECK OUT SARA’S BOOK: The Tenth Girl

CHECK OUT SARA’S BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

The Need by Helen Phillips

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

The Story That Cannot Be Told by J. Kasper Kramer

MORE READING:

“13 Wild Facts About Hatchet and Gary Paulsen” (Mental Floss, 2015)

“30 Years Later, Hatchet Remains the Best Nature Book for Boys” (Fatherly, 2018)

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