# Hatchet

**Author:** Gary Paulsen
**Lexile:** 1020L
**Grade range:** Grades 4–7
**Age range:** 10–14
**First published:** 1987
**Page count:** 208
**Genre:** Young Adult Survival
**ISBN-13:** `9781416936473`
**ISBN-10:** `1416936475`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/hatchet
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson survives a small-plane crash in the Canadian wilderness with only the hatchet his mother gave him and the clothes he is wearing. Paulsen's Newbery Honor novel is a common 5th- or 6th-grade introduction to survival fiction and first-person adolescent narration.

## Themes

- wilderness survival
- resilience
- divorce and family change
- self-reliance
- coming of age

## Content notes

- plane crash (described)
- animal attacks
- minor injury

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 11+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 5th grade · New York — [source: NYC DOE grade 5 ELA commonly taught text](https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/subjects/english-language-arts)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · Texas — [source: TEKS grade 5 frequently taught text](https://tea.texas.gov/)
- **recommended** · 6th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 6-8 exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 6th grade · California — [source: CA common summer-reading list — rising 6th grade](https://www.cde.ca.gov/)
- **recommended** · 6th grade · Ohio — [source: Ohio Learning Standards grade 6 aligned text](https://education.ohio.gov/)

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