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 autobiographical essays introduced as the nonfiction counterpart to Hatchet. Now Paulsen backs up and asks readers to imagine that Brian, the hero, hadn't been rescued after all. His many fans will be only too glad to comply, revisiting Brian at the onset of a punishing Canadian winter. The pace never relents-the story begins, as it were, in the middle, with Brian already toughened up and his reflexes primed for crisis. Paulsen serves up one cliffhanger after another (a marauding bear, a charging elk), and always there are the supreme challenges of obtaining food and protection against the cold. Authoritative narration makes it easy for readers to join Brian vicariously as he wields his hatchet to whittle arrows and arrowheads and a lance, hunts game, and devises clothes out of animal skins; while teasers at the ends of chapters keep the tension high (``He would hunt big tomorrow, he thought.... But as it happened he very nearly never hunted again''). The moral of the story: it pays to write your favorite author and ask for another helping. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gr. 5^-9. Writing with simplicity, Paulsen is at his best in an elemental story of wilderness survival. In this sequel to his widely popular Hatchet (1987), he spells out an alternative ending many readers have tried to imagine: What if 13-year-old Brian hadn't been rescued before winter came? What if he had had to face the cold months alone in the Canadian north? This time Brian has a survival kit he found in the crashed plane (including two butane lighters, a rifle, a fishing line, and a sleeping bag), but otherwise he has to find food, shelter, and clothing from the world around him. He sees himself like the first Americans, learning to make arrowheads and snowshoes, getting to know the sounds and tracks and weather of his place in the wild. Of course, Brian is extraordinarily resourceful and inventive. What's more, he somehow recovers from everything without injury, even after being knocked unconscious by a 700-pound moose. There's no suspense; we know he'll make it. Yet, as in the autobiographical Woodsong (1990), Paulsen writes with the authoritative particularity of someone who knows the woods. This docunovel is for outdoors lovers and also for all of those adventurers snug at home in a centrally heated high-rise. The facts are the drama. --Hazel Rochman

Gr 5-9-At the conclusion of Hatchet (Macmillan, 1987), Brian Robeson is rescued after surviving a plane crash and summer alone in the north Canadian woods. Now, in this second sequel, Paulsen shows what would have happened if the 13-year-old boy had been forced to endure the harsh winter. For a brief time, Brian lives in relative luxury, living off the contents of the recently recovered survival pack, which included a gun for hunting. Then, his freeze-dried food runs out and his rifle fails, and he realizes how careless and complacent he has become. Suddenly aware of the changing seasons, he works frantically to winterize his shelter, fashion warmer clothes from animal skins, and construct a more powerful bow and arrow. About the time he has mastered winter survival, he discovers a dog-sled trail that leads him to a trapper and final rescue. The same formula that worked before is successful here: the driving pace of the narration, the breathtaking descriptions of nature, and the boy who triumphs on the merits of efficient problem solving. The author's ability to cast a spell, mesmerize his audience, and provide a clinic in winter survival is reason enough to buy this novel. Although the plot is both familiar and predictable, Paulsen fans will not be disappointed.æTim Rausch, Crescent View Middle School, Sandy, UT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

With consummate skill, Doherty tells the story of James, a championship diver who runs away from his adoptive parents to seek out his birth mother. James has few clues at the start of his search, but with the help of a snake-shaped stone - an ammonite - and a scrap of paper with the message "Look after Sammy" written on it, he finds the woman who left him in a mailbox in a tiny village in Derbyshire, England, fifteen years earlier. James learns more about the painful history surrounding his adoption; meets his birth mother, Elizabeth; and is finally able to appreciate the reasons why she gave him away. In the end, he decides to return to his loving adoptive parents without disrupting his birth mother's world. James is a thoughtful and sensitive adolescent, and his first-person narration draws the reader into his quest for identity. James's story alternates with Elizabeth's shorter, although no less powerful, narration. As a young girl, Elizabeth falls in love with a gypsy and becomes pregnant. To protect the baby and herself, she knows she must abandon him with strangers. Her fright is palpable, as are her innocence and bravery. The two stories, told in two distinct voices, are deftly intertwined. With carefully crafted prose, Doherty creates vivid images and realistic dialogue that convey a rich sense of place and character. A moving and potent story of self-discovery. m.v.k. Penelope Farmer Penelope g The protagonist in this unusual fantasy set in contemporary England is Flora, a strange, pensive child given to inexplicable outbursts and terrible headaches. Since the death of her mother and the disappearance of her ne'er-do-well father, Flora has lived with her aunt and uncle and her cousin Louise. Flora's marked intelligence has earned her a scholarship to a private school, which has put her at odds with Louise and set her apart from her working-class adoptive family. What really distinguishes Flora from those around her, however, are memories she experiences that seem to belong to a little girl named Penelope who lived during the eighteenth century. When in the throes of one of these experiences, Flora speaks in a little girl's voice, and she might find herself suddenly reciting in Latin, or expertly playing the piano. Her aunt is convinced that Flora is the reincarnation of one of her ancestors, but the idea is too frightening for Flora to contemplate, until a confluence of forces brings about some resolution. The combination of her long-lost father's appearance, a visit to the tomb where little Penelope is buried, and the discovery that Flora herself had a twin sister - also named Penelope - who died at birth provides a gratifying climax that finally unites Flora with her past and allows the long-dead Penelope some peace. This is an ambitious novel that doesn't entirely succeed in placating the stormy ambience that it rouses. At times the need for exposition seems a drag on the flow of the narrative, and Louise's relationship with Flora begs for more attention. Flora's predicament is a compelling one, however, as is the notion of reincarnation. Readers looking for something off the beaten track might well enjoy this journey. n.v. Robin Klein The Sky in Silver Lace Continuing her series of books set in Australia not long after World War II, Klein tells of the difficult adjustments of the four Melling sisters and their mother when they move from their small country town to a large city. The oldest girl, Grace, is unhappily employed in a menial job but hopes to forge a career for herself using her undeniable artistic and design skills. Heather and Cathy have won scholarships to a prestigious girls' high school and struggle to make themselves accepted in a society far more sophisticated than any they have ever encountered. Vivienne, in primary school, is vulnerable and lost without her sisters and her friends. Ma is buffeted by the struggle to make ends meet, her inability to provide a permanent home, and the spiteful remarks and cold-hearted charity of a city relative. Various episodes present each girl's efforts to adjust to a new way of life while dealing with the limitations of poverty. Finally, at the end, even Vivienne, the youngest, is forced to realize that the return of their long-awaited father will never happen; they are on their own. But each sister has made a modest gain in self-confidence, and they are all on their way to a more secure future. This novel is distinguished by the carefully observed and solid setting, and by the perceptively delineated, realistic relationships between the girls and their mother. The Mellings are at a suspenseful turning point in their lives, and readers will hope for another installment. a.a.f. Gary Paulsen Brian's Winter In this ultimate "what if" companion to Paulsen's 1987 Newbery Honor-winning Hatchet (Bradbury), the author explores what would have happened to thirteen-year-old Brian if his ordeal in the Canadian wilderness had not ended before winter began, if the boy had not been able to trigger a radio signal, if he had been left with only his wits and his hatchet for the winter. In the wilderness, "fall came on with a softness" that almost fools Brian. His winter survival is chronicled in great, sometimes grisly, detail, until the boy, wearing skins for clothes and carrying stone arrowheads for weapons, comes across a Cree trapping family with whom he stays until he is finally flown out. A readable, fast-paced novel that can be read independently of the first book. m.b.s. Frances Temple The Beduin's Gazelle According to custom in their nomadic Khalidi tribe, cousins Halima and Atiyah have been promised to each other in marriage since birth. Atiyah, under pressure from his city-dwelling uncle, reluctantly leaves his people to study Islamic law at the university. There he meets the French pilgrim and student Etienne, whom readers may remember from the author's earlier companion novel, The Ramsay Scallop (Orchard). During a family move in the desert, Halima becomes lost in a sandstorm and is found by the rival Shummari tribe. Their presumptuous sheikh, Raisulu, proposes marriage, and Halima, bound by custom, cannot refuse, although she is emotionally distraught over the prospect. Just as Halima is about to become the sheikh's newest wife, Etienne and Atiyah arrive to rescue her. The Beduin's Gazelle touches on themes similar to those in The Ramsay Scallop, such as romance and the spread of religion. Readers will find themselves easily engaged by the vibrant characters, who illustrate the rich lives of Bedouin desert dwellers in the year 1302. The author's re-creation of the Bedouin culture, with its long tradition of storytelling and poetry and its capable women and children, makes reading this novel an enlightening experience. ellen fader From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Suppose Brian Robeson hadn't been rescued from the wilderness before hard winter set in? On this premise Paulsen (The Rifle, p. 1286) crafts a companion/sequel to Hatchet (1987) containing many of its same pleasures: seeing Brian face challenge after life- threatening challenge, of both the immediate and the insidious kind, aided only by ingenuity, spirit, sharp eyes, and a tiny cache of salvaged gear; discovering with him the tools and skills needed for survival; savoring Paulsen's economical, evocative descriptions of woodland sights, sounds, and smells. Brian learns how to hunt large game with bows and arrows and to fashion crude but effective winter clothing and shelter just in time for winter rains and snows. Having already fought his battles with fear, despair, and loneliness in the previous book, Brian seems almost comfortable, his thoughts of home more a way of passing time than a source of any sharp emotion, and when a family of Cree trappers finds him at the end, he leaves with mixed feelings, clearly seduced by the wild. Aside from a brief foreword, Paulsen picks Hatchet's story up in midstream; read together, the two books make his finest tale of survival yet. (Fiction. 10-14)