Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
informative
tense
medium-paced
I read this to my fifth grade social studies classes as we learned about the American Revolution. They loved the story and I loved the historical facts at the end of each chapter.
This is great writing! Simple, yet excellent. Concise, yet poetic. Beautiful! I liked the short bursts of non-fiction between the fictional chapters; I felt like this was a winning combo here. Strong themes: war only comes with "civilization," not with nature; the sanctuary of nature despite its wildness; the difficulty of trusting people, especially after being hurt. I loved the non-fiction fun facts and the strong setting of frontier Pennsylvania, 1776. Nonetheless this book had an unexpectedly simplistic climax that made the ending abrupt and disappointing for me.
adventurous
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a good book for showing the horror of the Revolutionary War. However, it’s few graphic depictions seem to be the only thing that set it as young adult instead of children’s literature.
Really fast read - I finished this book in a couple hours. Good historical fiction about the Revolutionary War from the perspective of a tweleve year old boy whose parents are kidnapped by British soldiers. He journeys to New York City to try to save them. Some parts of the rescue seem a bit too-good-to-be-true, but I like how the book looks at the war from the view of civilians, and it touches on some of the atrocities not often looked at.
There's not much meat to the bones here. It's a quick read, I think young readers will be engaged but I don't think there's a ton of story here, nor are the tours/encounters that gripping.
While I felt like the characterizations were a little thin, I enjoyed the story overall and appreciated the little historical sides.
We featured this book on a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-238-hatchets-at-the-ready-the-gary-paulsen-spotlight
We featured this book on a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-238-hatchets-at-the-ready-the-gary-paulsen-spotlight
There is a sixth grade boy in my near future (school starts in six weeks) who will think I am the bomb because I handed him this book to read. I hope that Gary Paulsen is richer than King Midas. He deserves every penny for hooking so many young readers.