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The River

AUTHOR: Gary Paulsen
ISBN: 0440407532
SHORT DESCRIPTION: "We want you to do it again."These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived. Now the government wants...

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Editorial Review

The River
- Book Review, by Gary Paulsen

From Publishers Weekly
In a boxed review, PW praised the "terse, heart-stopping prose" of this follow-up to Hatchet : "The new adventure is as riveting as its predecessor . . . the psychological terrain of the sequel is fresh and distinct." Ages 10-14. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
This sequel to Gary Paulsen's award-winning Hatchet, (AudioFile, Apr 93) finds fifteen-year-old Brian returning to the Canadian wilderness where he had been stranded alone after a plane crash two years earlier. The story is self-contained, not dependent on its predecessor. Peter Coyote presents a dry, detached reading which doesn't detract from the inherent power of the story, but adds little. His reading is polished, clear and professional, but maintains a distance from the characters. Despite this, The River should be considered an excellent choice for family listening, keeping adults and children keenly attuned. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Kirkus Reviews
A sequel to the most popular of Paulsen's three Newbery Honor books (Hatchet, 1987), based on an unlikely premise-- government researchers want Brian to reenact his northwoods survival so that his strategies can be observed and taught to others. Derek, a young psychologist, and Brian are dropped off at another Canadian lake, near the first one, equipped only with knives and a radio that Derek has promised not to use except in a dire emergency. Everything goes all too smoothly until their camp is struck by lightning, zapping the radio and leaving Derek in a coma. Brian manages to float Derek 100 miles down a river to a trading post, thus saving his life. The lyrically described details of Brian's adventure-- building a fire, making a raft--are of most interest here; for all its graphically evoked perils (rapids, the craft's unwieldiness, exhaustion), the journey's successful outcome seems less in doubt than did the outcome of the compelling autobiographical wilderness experiences described in Woodsong (1990). In Hatchet, Brian discovered his own strength, adding depth, complexity, and tension to the story; here, that strength is a given--as he himself points out. Perfunctory in design but vividly written, a book that will, as intended, please the readers who hoped that Paulsen, like Brian, would ``do it again.'' (Fiction. 11-14) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Book Review

The River
- Book Reviews, by Gary Paulsen

The River

ANNOTATION

Because of his success surviving alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days, fifteen-year-old Brian, profoundly changed by his time in the wild, is asked to undergo a similar experience to help scientists learn more about the psychology of survival.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"We want you to do it again."These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived. Now the government wants him to do it again -- to go back into the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept Brian alive.

SYNOPSIS

"We want you to do it again."

These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for 54 days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

For fans of Hatchet, Paulsen's popular survival story, come two follow-up adventures. In the first, Brian must rescue a coma victim when stranded on a rapid river in the wilderness. PW called The River "as riveting as its predecessor... the psychological terrain of the sequel is fresh and distinct." Brian's Winter poses the question: what if the hero had not been rescued before the weather turned deadly? "The pace never relents," said PW, "Paulsen serves up one cliffhanger after another." Ages 12-up. (Feb.)

AudioFile - Robin F. Whitten

This sequel to Gary Paulsen￯﾿ﾽs award-winning Hatchet, (AudioFile, Apr 93) finds fifteen-year-old Brian returning to the Canadian wilderness where he had been stranded alone after a plane crash two years earlier. The story is self-contained, not dependent on its predecessor. Peter Coyote presents a dry, detached reading which doesn￯﾿ﾽt detract from the inherent power of the story, but adds little. His reading is polished, clear and professional, but maintains a distance from the characters. Despite this, The River should be considered an excellent choice for family listening, keeping adults and children keenly attuned. R.F.W. ￯﾿ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine

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