Hatchet

by Gary Paulsen

195pgs ages 9-12 (My copy had very small writing...other editions may be longer)

I remember being bored to tears while reading this at school.  It may be, as many have said in their blogs, having to over-analyze everything in the book and take 2 months to read something that would ordinarily take me a few days.  Consequentially, I remember very little of this book.  Here is the except from the back cover:

ALONE

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when suddenly the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes.  Suddenly Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wildeness with nothing but a book, a tattered Windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present (Side note: HA getting a hatchet on a plane now??  Can't even believe they would let you do it then)-and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents' divorce.  But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or dispair - it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.

This book recieved a Newberry Honor in 1988.  I might hold off on reading this one to my daughter as well.  I think the idea of the plane crash and being alone in the woods would scare her a bit too much.