The River

by Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

The government sends Brian back to the Canadian wilderness in this beloved follow-up to the award-winning classic Hatchet from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen Two years after... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 044022750X
• ISBN13: 9780440227502
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf Library
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.2" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 13 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

Another Tale from the Brianverse

Good tension, but this book felt much shorter than others in the series, and I found it to be less-informative overall. I do appreciate that every book presents Brian with a very different survival scenario, however, if stranded in the woods with an incapacitated second person, I've basically learned that all you can really do is yeet them down a river and hope for the best.

Not just for kids

This story was good but not as good as Hatchet but still entertaining. Doable in a day for adults.

Facing his past and new challenges

The Hatchet story continues as Brian returns to the wilds, this time with a companion. He encounters new challenges and trials. A real page turner - read through in 2 hours...

This book is freakin sweet!!!

This book is pretty kewl. It is filled with action and leaves you on the edge of your seat the entire time you are reading it. In the last book "The Hatchet" his plane crashed and he was forced to survive in the wilderness alone! In this book a government official named Derek comes to his house to ask him to do it all over again... just without the crashing part! So he agrees and they go out there and the guy is struck by lightning and is in a coma, and Brian knows the only way to save him is to build a raft to go down river to the trading post so he can get medical attention. The rest you will have to find out by yourself!!!

Great Survival Story

Gary Paulsen has made a wonderful tale of survival once again. This is a story filled with excitment and wonder and is extremely hard to put down. Anyone will enjoy reading this captivating tale of survival and will want to share it with everyone they know.

The River

The River I really like this book. This book was about a man that got stranded in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a hatchet, yet threw all he still survived it. Now the Government wants him to do it again. They want him to go back to the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept Brian alive. This time he won?t be alone though. A government psychologist will accompany him to observe and take notes. Then a freak storm came up. The Government guy gets hit by lightning and falls into a coma. Their radio is dead, Brian is afraid he will die of dehydration unless he can get him to a doctor. His only hope is to build a raft and try to transport him a hundred miles down the river to a trading post. And that is what he did.

"Brian does it again"

In this sequel to Gary Paulsen's The Hatchet Brian finds himself faced with a new challenge. Instead of he himself surviving, he must get someone else to safety. Derek Holtzer asks Brian to do it again, to survive so that he can teach others to do it, but then he is struck by lightning, disabling him and forcing Brian to get him to safety before it's top late. The only option is the river that leads out to safety, as he is yet faced with another challenge.I thought that this book was an easy read, and it was fantastically crafted, just like any other Paulsen work. He brings fourth a style which is felt because of his experiences in the wilderness, and makes you go through all of the ups and downs that the character experiences. It was definitely a thrill ride from start to finish, with a good strong plot and lots of interesting details of survival. Overall I'd say that this book is a worthy sequel to Hatchet and a must for any Paulsen fan.

Reviewed for Mrs. Hassell's 5th grade class at St. John's

The River is a great sequel to Gary Paulsen's book Hatchet. The main characters are Brian, the boy who had been in the wilderness, and Derek, a man who wants to see how Brian survived. In this novel Derek wants to go back into the wilderness with Brian to learn how he survived. Derek wants to be able to teach astronauts and the military how to survive. This time Brian is not alone because Derek is with him. When Brian and Derek got to the lake at night, the mosquitoes attacked them like rain attacks the roof of my house. This reminds me of the times when I go to camp and get attacked by mosquitoes. When this happens, I feel miserable just like Brian did. Then I walk around itching, scratching and feeling like I want to die. When Derek was shocked by lightning, Brian had to decide to stay there or take Derek down the river to get help. Brian had to float down the river. This reminds me of when I had to do forty jumps in the air at tennis practice. I didn't want to do it, but I had to, just like Brian had to go down the river. It is very hard to do forty jumps because it hurts your back. I knew I had to do it to stay in the clinic just like Brian knew he had to go down the river. Brian had alot of fear when he fell off the raft. I have that same fear about roller coasters. Nobody made me go on them, but I am still afraid of them. I can imagine how it must feel to be afraid and then actually to have to go ahead and do it. The River is a great novel. Everyone who likes adventure should read this book. I like Brian because he had the courage to follow through with things. He doesn't whine about things; he just does what he has to do. We sometimes slack off and whine about things. When we do, we should think of Brian