#143 in Adventure
Hatchet
- 192
- Pages
- about 3.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Hatchet” is a lean, carefully built survival story for young readers: one boy, the wilderness, and the slow work of learning to stay alive. Its tone is thoughtful and ultimately hopeful rather than breathless, so adults returning to it may find it solid but not gripping. It remains a dependable choice for younger teenagers and for anyone with a taste for wilderness survival tales.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Hatchet is a 1987 young-adult wilderness survival novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen. It is the first novel of five in the Hatchet series. Other novels in the series include The River (1991), Brian's Winter (1996), Brian's Return (1999) and Brian's Hunt (2003). It was first published in September 1987 by Bradbury Press, and the recipient of the Newbery Honor Award in 1988.
Reading order · Brian's Saga
Full order & progress →- HatchetThis book
7.57.5 / 10 - The River
7.77.7 / 10 - Brian's Winter
7.97.9 / 10 - Brian's ReturnBrian's Return–Not ranked yet
- Brian's HuntBrian's Hunt–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.5 across 755 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 84% of the weight and the score stays at 7.5 — the Adventure average of 7.8 barely moves it.
The rating sources disagree by more than a point, so the score leans more on the category average than usual.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.4 | 156 | 21% |
| Hardcover | 7.2 | 599 | 79% |
Frequently asked
How long is Hatchet?
It has 192 pages — shorter than 96% of the ranked books in Adventure.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Adventure — with scores between 7.5 and 7.6, closest to this book.
