Gary Paulsen, . . Dell/Laurel-Leaf, $5.50 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-440-41248-9
PW
said, "Plotted much like a shoot-'em-up computer game, this story set in 2057 hurtles through hairbreadth rescues and encounters with loyal American fighters and bloodcurdlingly evil Confederation of Consolidated Republics soldiers. The dialogue is pure B-movie." Ages 10-14. (May)
The author of Hatchet
turns from adventure and high action to contemplative moments with this prose poem that describes a trip around a lake. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
"Paulsen is at the top of his form in this tribute to his sled dog Cookie," said PW
in a starred review. It is "easy to cross-shelve this book Continue reading »
HOW ANGEL PETERSON GOT HIS NAME: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme Sports
Gary Paulsen
Paulsen, who has written several volumes of memoirs, once again reaches back to his boyhood in northern Minnesota, this time to recount his and his pals' attempts to pull off stunts that live Continue reading »
THE GLASS CAF: Or the Stripper and the State; How My Mother Started a War with the System that Made Us Kind of Rich and a Little Bit Famous
Gary Paulsen
In one of his minor efforts, the prolific Paulsen serves up a righteous, pro–free-speech theme accompanied by big helpings of over-the-top plot lines. Twelve-year-old Tony, in whose Continue reading »
"This short, lyrical novel concerns a five-year-old boy who is sent to the north woods of Minnesota to live with his grandmother, a cook for a rough-and-tumble road-building crew," wrote Continue reading »
HOW ANGEL PETERSON GOT HIS NAME: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme Sports
Gary Paulsen
Paulsen once again reaches back to his northern Minnesota boyhood to recount his and his pals' attempt to pull off stunts that live up to their billing as "outrageous" and Continue reading »
Paulsen's futuristic novel starts with a bang, as Dorso Clayman discovers a medical cadaver in his school locker ("It was an old cadaver. Runny"). Readers quickly learn that the Continue reading »
The Amazing Life of Birds: The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech
Gary Paulsen
Paulsen's perceptive, funny look at the life of 12-year-old Duane is at once indisputably real and drolly exaggerated. The author gets the beleaguered boy's voice just right as Duane bares Continue reading »
In a foreword to this compelling fictionalized biography (appropriately subtitled, "Being the True and Fictional Account of the Most Valiant Marshal in the West"), Paulsen debunks the Continue reading »
At the start of this witty, quick-moving tale from the Newbery author, a 12-year-old receives an unexpected birthday present from his grandmother: his late grandfather's riding lawn mower. Continue reading »
Without even trying, Mudshark is a very cool 12-year-old (he acquired his nickname after wowing his peers with lightning-speed reflexes during a game of Death Ball (“a kind of soccer mixed Continue reading »
Paulsen (Mudshark
) writes another touching story about human kindness and humanity. Reclusive and insecure, Finn lives with his father, his dog and his friend Continue reading »
Set during the American Revolution, Paulsen's (Hatchet
) slim novel candidly and credibly exposes the underbelly of that war. Sam is a skilled hunter with Continue reading »
Following the events of one year, from plowing to harvest to butchering, this novel offers a compelling description of farming in a bygone time. The narrator, Elgon, is the younger son of a Continue reading »
A disturbed 14-year-old gains new perspectives while staying with his uncle in a Minnesota farm community in the 1940s, in this novel by the Newbery Honor author. Ages 10-14. Continue reading »
First published in 1977, this gritty novel by the author of Hatchet features a 15-year-old runaway who hooks up with a carnie. Ages 12-up. Continue reading »
Nearly two years after being marooned in the wilderness--the experience recounted in Hatchet --Brian agrees to go back, accompanied by Derek, a psychologist who wants to study the strategies and Continue reading »
A psychic link is forged between a 19th-century Apache boy and Brennan, a 15-year-old on a camping trip who undertakes a grueling journey. ``Terse language keeps the story moving at a brisk pace,'' Continue reading »
Living with her mother in a New Mexico art colony, a teenaged girl feels iso lated and is haunted by a recurring dream. PW praised the ``eerily poetic'' writing in this allegorical novel, ``rooted in Continue reading »
PW praised the ``taut scenes of physical drama and suspense'' in the Newbery Honor author's tale of a boy who, on his own in a high-country meadow, cares for several thousand sheep one summer. Ages Continue reading »
Among the most powerful of Paulsen's works ( Hatchet ; The Winter Room ; Dogsong ), this impeccably researched novel sheds light on cruel truths in American history as it traces the experiences of a Continue reading »
Paulsen choreographs an antic jig of down-on-the-farm frolics in this warm comedy set a few years after WW II. The 11-year-old narrator (who has spent a good portion of his life being shipped off to Continue reading »
Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
Gary Paulsen
The scene was unnerving to a novice: television cameras, loudspeakers, crowds and nearly 2000 excited dogs all jammed a street in downtown Anchorage. It was the start of the Iditarod dogsled race Continue reading »
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 Continue reading »
Eastern Sun, Winter Moon: An Autobiographical Odyssey
Gary Paulsen, Paulsen
Author Paulsen recounts the horrors of his childhood during WWII in which he and his mother travel to the Philippines to join his father, an army officer. Continue reading »
The Newbery Honor author, a two-time participant in the Iditarod, describes the thrill of a winter's night run with a team of sled dogs. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
In a starred review, PW called this western adventure ``a real knock 'em, sock 'em ripsnorter'' with a ``thrill-a-minute plot.'' Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
First there was Hatchet, Paulsen's classic tale of a boy's survival in the north woods after a plane crash. Then came a sequel, The River, and, last year, Father Water, Mother Woods, a collection of Continue reading »
""Descriptions of light and water, of fish and wildlife, kindle in the reader a measure of the author's own complex respect for nature,"" said PW in a starred review. All ages. Continue reading »
In a starred review of this follow-up to Mr. Tucket, PW said that Paulsen ""weaves in a wealth of information about pioneer travel, adding historical value to this heart-stopping good read."" Ages Continue reading »
Here's a treat to make Paulsen fans sit up and beg for more: scenes of Paulsen's life viewed in terms of the dogs who graced them. Aficionados who have read Paulsen's other memoirs (Father Water, Continue reading »
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 Continue reading »
The third book in the series that began with Mr. Tucket finds Francis and his adopted family on the Oregon Trail and in the Mexican War. Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
This simple prose poem describes, in broad strokes, how corn is harvested and made into tortillas while rough, warm-toned paintings set the scenes. All ages. Continue reading »
This simple prose poem describes, in broad strokes, how corn is harvested and made into tortillas while rough, warm-toned paintings set the scenes. All ages. Continue reading »
Two junior high boys lose their ""uncool"" status when they kiss girls and foil some football team thugs in this comedy set in the 1950s. ""Joyfully unconventional thinking and quirky writing,"" said Continue reading »
Soldier's Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers
Gary Paulsen, Zumbo
Addressing the most fundamental themes of life and death, the versatile Paulsen produces a searing antiwar story. He bases his protagonist, Charley Goddard, on an actual Civil War soldier, a Continue reading »
The appearance of yet another sequel to Hatchet may raise a few eyebrows, but Paulsen delivers a vigorous, stirring story that stands on its own merits. Whereas the previous continuations, The River Continue reading »
""Here's a treat to make Paulsen fans sit up and beg for more,"" said PW in a starred review; ""Paulsen's paean resonates with a robust appreciation of the species."" All ages. (July) r Continue reading »
A 94-year-old former slave recalls the years after the Civil War. PW called this sequel to Nightjohn ""somewhat contrived"" but a ""page-turner."" Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Continue reading »
Mysteriously transported to a strange place and time, 13-year-old Mark learns to survive. ""Paulsen works his magic with another wilderness adventure yarn,"" said PW in a starred review. Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
Tucket's Travels: Francis Tucket's Adventures in the West, 1847-1849 (Books 1-5)
Gary Paulsen, Paulsen
Tucket's Travels by Gary Paulsen collects all five of Francis Tucket's previously published adventures into one meaty paperback volume: Mr. Tucket; Call Me Francis Tucket; Tucket's Ride; Tucket's Continue reading »
In Gary Paulsen's latest, Brian's Hunt, Brian has traveled back to his beloved Canadian wilderness. Although Brian's Return (2001) was to be the last in the series, here the acclaimed hero hunts Continue reading »
When the pilot of a small, two-person plane has a heart attack and dies, Brian has to crash land in the forest of a Canadian wilderness. He has little time to realize how alone he is, because he is Continue reading »
Paulsen's latest novel is as ugly as a bad dream. Unfortunately, it's not a dream, but a potent expression of the brutal realities of a bridge that joins the golden highways of ""el norte'' (the Continue reading »
Most of the action of this farcical novel takes place at the high school where Jacob Freisten's primary goal is to remain unnoticed. All too often this classic loser finds himself cornered by some Continue reading »
In the riveting second volume of Paulsen's crime trilogy (after Night Rituals ), Denver freelance reporter Tally Janrus, covering the murder and mutilation of a young boy, learns from his police Continue reading »
Brennan is a young loner of the type that will be instantly familiar to Paulsen fans. Coyote Runs is a 19th-century Apache boy who was murdered during the raid that was to mark his entry into Continue reading »
Paulsen, who has received Newbery Honors for three of his novels, is the best author of man-against-nature adventures writing today. Woodsong is an autobiographical celebration of his longtime love Continue reading »
Three-time Newbery Honor author Paulsen provides another action-filled survival story, as a storm strands 14-year-old David when he attempts to fulfill his late uncle's last wish by piloting his Continue reading »
``Newbery Award-winner Paulsen never disappoints, and proves his talent again in this remarkably good tale,'' said PW , concerning this vivid yarn of a family dramatically affected by a quirky Continue reading »
Rocky, an adopted, partly lame teenage girl, tells how a memorial to her small Kansas town's war dead came to be built and how her vision and those of the other residents were altered by the Continue reading »
When John is 14, a shortage of hired hands compels him to spend the summer caring for several thousand sheep in a high-country meadow. Several days' ride from the ranch, John has only himself to rely Continue reading »
Gary Paulsen, author of adventure novels for young people, shows us a world of unremitting hard work and self-sufficiency in his powerfully elegiac account of the seasonal activities of a Continue reading »
These lively stories kick off the Culpepper Adventures series, which Paulsen conceived in the hopes of converting reluctant readers-or those hooked on TV-to reading. Kids, especially middle-grade Continue reading »
Eastern Sun, Winter Moon: An Autobiographical Odyssey
Gary Paulsen
Paulsen's notable adult trade debut, Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass , and 16 award-winning YA novels precede this gripping memoir of a tumultuous childhood. ``My mother and I spent the war years in Continue reading »
The distinguished author of Dogsong and Hatchet somewhat strains for effect in this prose poem describing a night run with a team of dogs. Each stanza begins with a kind of chapter heading (``The Continue reading »
Since the death of his wife, Al Murphy has wandered the West. As this latest addition to the series bearing his name ( Murphy's Gold , etc.) opens, the former sheriff stumbles on some gunmen just Continue reading »
Poetically wrought, this novel reveals the parallels in the seemingly disparate circumstances of Rosa, an illegal immigrant-turned-prostitute, and Traci, a popular junior-high student preparing for Continue reading »
Here's a real knock 'em, sock 'em, ripsnorter guaranteed to keep any boy (and any girl who doesn't mind a dearth of female characters) enthralled from first page through last. In 1848, a 14-year-old Continue reading »
Fourteen-year-old Terry Anders is a 1990s Huck Finn, with parents as neglectful as ``Pap.'' Like Huck he escapes, not on a raft but by constructing a kit car. He takes his red Blakely Bearcat out to Continue reading »
Gary Paulsen, in a foreword to this collection of autobiographical essays, identifies his youthful experiences in the woods and rivers of northern Minnesota as the source for his Newbery Honor novel Continue reading »
Billed as ``a parable in one sitting,'' Paulsen's newest is not so much a full-fledged novel or novella as a story dominated by a single theme. Although the title may lead the Newbery Honor author's Continue reading »
``A hearty helping of old-fashioned, rip-roaring entertainment,'' said PW about this post-WWII story of an 11-year-old boy sent to spend the summer on his relatives' farm. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
In this fifth book of the western-mystery adventures of New Mexico Sheriff Al Murphy, the lean and leathery lawman finds himself on the trail of renegade Apache, murder and conspiracy. The authors Continue reading »
The hero of this stallion-swift adventure tale, the followup to Mr. Tucket, could be the adolescent prefiguration of the archetypal western good guy-Gary Cooper or Clint Eastwood with a voice that's Continue reading »
A gifted storyteller, Paulsen could have plucked this plot straight from any newspaper-an accidental shooting with a loaded gun. This tragedy doesn't occur until the final pages, however; with Continue reading »
In a starred review, PW praised the Newbery Honor author for ``his ability to create flesh-and-blood characters'' in this story about a 14-year-old who sets out on a road trip and meets up with a Continue reading »
The value of life is the theme of these two rugged novels, the first a coming-of-age tale revolving around a deer hunt, the second a collection of interspliced stories contrasting a celebration of Continue reading »
Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers: Reflections on Being Raised by a Pack of Sled Dogs
Gary Paulsen, Dunham
Paulsen is at the top of his form in this tribute to his sled dog Cookie, previously introduced in the adult title Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. With the same rugged Continue reading »
PW praised the pacing and settings of this tale of father and son scammers posing as preachers, but found that ""the symbolism and message are trumpeted too loudly, drowning out attempts to create Continue reading »
From truck driver to cafeteria cook, from nurse to deep-sea diver--""All the things there are to be"" gather together in this gentle rhyming hymn to the dignity of work. Here, work is the common tie Continue reading »
Two things make this book stand out from the crowd of school-based comedies. First, there's Paulsen's joyfully unconventional thinking and quirky writing. Second, this book is told in an unusual but Continue reading »
In this somewhat contrived sequel to Nightjohn, set in post-Civil War New Orleans, 94-year-old Sarny reflects on her first few years as an emancipated slave. On the day the plantation master is Continue reading »
Pilgrimage on a Steelride: A Memoir about Men and Motorcycles
Gary Paulsen
Talk about succumbing to the mystique of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Paulsen's fourth collection of memoirs finds him 57 and diagnosed with heart disease. So before it's too late and--as the book's Continue reading »
Paulsen revisits the terrain of various autobiographical writings (Father Water, Mother Woods; Eastern Sun, Winter Moon; and sections of My Life in Dog Years) for this affecting story of a pivotal Continue reading »
Paulsen (Brian's Winter) works his magic with another wilderness adventure yarn. But the wilderness this time isn't in this world--or is it? That's what 13-year-old Mark tries to discover. On his Continue reading »
Narrated by the son of a Minnesota farm family sometime in the first half of the century, this ""remarkably good"" story ""will inevitably recall Laura Ingalls Wilder--but by way of Hemingway and Jim Continue reading »
The prolific author of such titles as Hatchet and Soldier's Heart turns from adventure and high action to contemplative moments in this not particularly childlike mood piece. Describing a canoe trip Continue reading »
Soldier's Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers
Gary Paulsen
From the author interview at the beginning of this recording, listeners will be caught up in Paulsen's storytelling. His wrenching look at the brutal Civil War (based on one boy's real-life Continue reading »
No stranger to memoir, Paulsen (My Life in Dog Years; Father Water, Mother Woods) returns to a series of episodes he previously fictionalized in the 1977 Tiltawhirl John and now presents the material Continue reading »
Plotted much like a shoot-'em-up computer game, this often violent adventure shows the Newbery Honor author at his least literary. It is 2057, and the Confederation of Consolidated Republics (CCR) Continue reading »
A follow-up to Alida's Song, The Quilt by Gary Paulsen relates the boy's experiences at age six, spending time at his grandmother's Minnesota farm in the summer of 1944. Here, they, along with the Continue reading »
The island is in the middle of a small lake in northern Wisconsin. It is uninhabited until the summer Wilstet, who is 15, arrives. Wil is at first drawn by the simplicity of the place, but as his Continue reading »
This short, lyrical novel concerns a five-year-old boy who is sent to the north woods of Minnesota to live with his grandmother, a cook for a rough-and-tumble road-building crew, because his father Continue reading »
This Newbery Honor book is a dramatic, heart-stopping story of a boy who, following a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness, must learn to survive with only a hatchet and his own wits. Ages 12-up. Continue reading »
Paulsen's admirers will be satisfied with his latest survival story, this time set in the open sea. The author ranges through his accustomed territory, focusing on both the actual aspects of the Continue reading »
According to PW , this ``autobiographical celebration of Paulsen's longtime love of dogsledding and sled dogs . . . blends deep introspection with fast-paced action and succeeds admirably on both Continue reading »
Liar, Liar: The Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Deception
Gary Paulsen
"I'm the best liar you'll ever meet," announces the glib narrator of this funny and touching novel. Fourteen-year-old Kevin inventively bends the truth to his advantage?or so he thinks. He convinces Continue reading »
Fourteen-year-old Harold Schernoff has a scientific theory for just about everything?from skiing and playing sports to illegally purchasing a car. With close friend Gary, Harold navigates the social Continue reading »
Jacob Freisten just wants to live life inconspicuously. But when his English teacher, Mrs. Hilsak, tells Jacob he's on the verge of flunking the class, she gives him an alternative: he can save his Continue reading »
A devoted raconteur of dog stories, Gary Paulsen (Notes from the Dog) along with his sculptor son, Jim, pull from a family tradition of adopting shelter dogs for their absorbing first collaboration. Continue reading »
This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs
Gary Paulsen
Paulsen ventures into nonfiction in this anecdotal account of animals%E2%80%94pets and others%E2%80%94that have influenced him. The stories' diverse settings reflect Paulsen's peripatetic and Continue reading »
A master of action-propelled outdoor stories, Paulsen moves his focus inside, literally and figuratively, as he explores the interactions among six eighth-grade boys while they take shelter in a Continue reading »
Paulsen (This Side of Wild) again mines themes of resourcefulness and respect for nature in this introspective story of a boy raised in the woods by an elderly hermit. The unnamed young narrator's Continue reading »
Disgruntled teenager Ben and his impulsive father set out to rescue an abandoned border collie in Road Trip, three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen's first collaboration Continue reading »
At age 80, three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen still has more stories to tell, including a memoir, ‘Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Boyhood on the Run,’ in early 2021, Continue reading »
A “The House That Jack Built” narrative structure gives a night of stargazing galactic dimensions in this expansive picture book. As the sun sets, a child cuddles on a blanket Continue reading »
Mushrooms provide an unconventional and earthy through line for this cozy bedtime book. Rhyming lines open with a simple introduction to different types of fungi (“This is a Continue reading »
Ogle pays clear-eyed tribute to his maternal abuela while covering heavy topics such as child abuse, financial precarity, and racism in this searing verse memoir, a standalone Continue reading »
Ireland (Dread Nation) delivers a knockout punch in this fantastical steampunk take on the Great Depression, in which the U.S. rebuilds after a magical blight throws the country Continue reading »