Tracker

by Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

A boy struggles with the legacy of the hunters in his family in this middle grade adventure from three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen. For John Borne's family, hunting has nothing to do with sport or manliness. It's a matter of survival. Every fall John and his grandfather go off into the woods to shoot deer and put meat on the table over the long Minnesota winter. But this year, John's grandfather is dying, and John must hunt alone. John...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416939407
• ISBN13: 9781416939405
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.6" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

LOVED this Book -- "Tracker" is a Gem

I've been reading Gary Paulsen and liking his books, but this one... this one blows me away. It is just so good. Tracker is a brief but stunning narrative about death and life, of coming to grips with the way things are. It's the story about a young teen, John, who lives with his grandmother and grandfather on a farm that has been in their family for generations. Like many of us John wants his life to remain stagnant, unchanging. But his grandfather has cancer. And he has been given less than a year to live. It is with all of this emotional baggage that he heads out alone to hunt deer on the first day of the Hunting Season. It is the first time that he goes by himself, and the ensuing story brought me to tears. Talking Points::: Don't rely on my inability to do justice to this fine book. It's less than 100 pages long so read it! The setting is in the near past, where hand pumps were still used indoors, and where wood heated homes on some farms in the U.S. I highly recommend this book for the home shelves. It is absolutely the sort of book that you could read every decade only to find yourself discovering a new layer to think about. That said, it's not a book I would necessarily recommend to kids or even some young adults. In my opinion, it's been mislabeled and should be listed as fiction for adults. a mini-review (booksforkids-reviews)

The best book ever

The story of Tracker is a very good one and I recommend it to anyone who likes a good heartwarming book. The plot of this book has to do with a boy who has to deal with the fact that his grandfather is dying and that he has already lost all his other family except his grandmother. He is a simple boy and lives in the country and has many chores but still has to go to school like every other kid. He has to haul out the manure from the cows with their team of horses when he sees this doe. Now normally when he sees a deer this close to deer season they are spooked and run away but this one is not afraid and just sits there and looks at him and he can't figure out what is so different about this deer. Of course like any boy his age he will go deer hunting but this year is different, this year he will have to go by himself instead of with his grandfather for support. He polishes his rifle the night before and has his place he is going to hunt all picked out but he don't know how great of a journey it is going to be. He goes out and his spot is perfect because the deer come fleeing out of the timber from the predators that try to kill them. He gets up in the cold winter morning early in the morning and does all his chores. He loves the smell of the cows and all the good things a farm kid enjoy. He gets done and goes out. He sees the same deer that he saw earlier and tracks her for a very long time and when he finally gets there. Well, you will have to just wait and see for yourself. But like I said earlier this book is good for anyone. Boys, girls, older people, younger people, everyone can see the goodness of this story once they read it and get the true meaning of what Gary Paulsen wanted us to get from this story.

Back Home

I felt I was back home, in my childhood days. I grew up in the country where people hunted and ate deer meat. This book was tender and sentimental for me. I was sad because the grandfather was dying. I love all of Gary Paulsen's books. Even though most of them are teen books (Murphy's Gold is adult), they are breathtaking, enjoyable books for me. He writes books about rural life. This particular book was special. The grandfather was dying, but does the deer have to die?

I loved the book Tracker!

I loved the book Tracker! It was a great hunting book to read. I loved it because I like to hunt. The part where he was chasing the deer was very exciting. Gary Paulson made it sound like you were there being the hunter. You were the guy in charge. You were going to get that deer if it took you your life. Then he also put very dramatic words in like "The rays of the sun were beating down on the beautiful deer." You know stuff like that. He also said nervous things like"John approached the deer with a heart pumping loudly. If I had to rate this book I would I would give it 5 stars.

It was a great book.

It was overall a good book but too many people died