Brian's Winter

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Brian's Winter is the 1996 sequel to Gary Paulsen's young adult novel Hatchet.

Story

At the end of Hatchet, thirteen-year-old Brian, who has been trapped in the Canadian wilderness after a plane accident, decides to dive for supplies from the submerged aircraft. He recovers, among other things, an emergency transmitter. Within hours, a pilot receives the beacon and rescues him. The book ends with a note that Brian, who learns wilderness survival through trial and error, probably would not have survived the upcoming harsh winter.

Paulsen says that many readers wrote him, complaining about the deus ex machina ending. In response, Paulsen wrote Brian's Winter, which explores what would have happened if Brian had not activated the transmitter. The story deals with Brian constructing a winter shelter, building snow shoes, being attacked by a bear, and learning to use the small rifle he found in the plane. Eventually, Brian meets a family of Cree trappers, who help him return home.

This book is followed chronologically by three sequels, The River (actually written before Brian's Winter), Brian's Return, and Brian's Hunt.

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