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Hatchet Read Alikes

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Written almost 40 years ago, many have read the thrilling story of  Hatchet, where Brian Robeson survived in the wild after a plane crash left him stranded. While many readers haven't had to survive in the wild like Brian, many find inspiration in his perseverance and ingenuity while working through his own emotional distress. If you or your child love survival stories, here are ones like Hatchet that you are sure to find intriguing. 

Written by Dusti Bowling
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2020. Fiction. 307 pages.

Exactly a year after her mother was killed in a restaurant shooting, Nora's dad takes her out for her birthday far away from society to go repelling into a slot canyon. However, an unexpected flashflood steals Nora's father away, leaving her alone to fend for herself. These incidents trigger her anxiety and PTSD from losing her mother. She needs to rely on the survival skills her parents have taught her over the years as well as coping skills she's learned in therapy. 

Written by Gary Paulsen
New York: Farrer Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2022. Fiction. 246 pages.

Published after Gary Paulsen's death, Northwind has many of the characteristics of Hatchet and the other books written by Paulsen. Leif is a young boy in a Norse fishing village who soon finds himself alone after the rest of his village is taken by cholera. Before his death, a village elder tells Leif to paddle north, where there isn't sickness. Leif has to escape bears and survive off of only salmon and berries as he journeys to safety.

Written by Megan E. Freeman
New York: Aladdin, 2021. Fiction. 404 pages.

Maddie planned a secret sleepover with her best friends, but when those plans fall through, she goes ahead by herself for a solitary sleepover at her grandparent's summer apartment. However the next morning she finds herself alone, when she misses a middle of the night evacuation. Over the course of three years she must figure out how to survive the cold Colorado winters, how to escape looters, and how to deal with the loneliness that comes from only having a neighbor's dog as a companion.

Written by Maggie Rudd
New York: Farrer Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2023. Fiction. 230 pages.

Raymond is used to his parent's being unreliable, but everything changes when the seventh grader comes home from school one day to find that they have abandoned him and his dog, Rosie, leaving their rented trailer locked. Raymond's always kept himself under the radar at school, so he continues going to school while living with Rosie in a hollowed out tree. As he struggles to feed himself and keep his grades up at school, Raymond slowly comes to realize that being unhoused isn't a secret that he needs to keep. 

Written by Beth Vrabel
New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. 242 pages.

Sixth-grade Gerty and Hayes form a friendship after meeting in their social-skills class. After finding solace in their friendship to escape their home lives, they are devastated when Gerty's parents announce that they are moving off the grid, separating the two friends. Before that happens, Gerty shows Hayes her secret: she's been building an ultralight airplane in her grandmother's barn, and the two of them decide to take it out to protect Utah's Pando from a wildfire. Unable to fly away once they get there, the spur-of-the-moment trip soon becomes a fight for survival.
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