Gary Paulsen (1939–2021)

Just one of my absolute favorites!
Gary Paulsen, known for his young adult novels, has just absolutely crushed it with his autobiographical masterpiece on his attempt at prepping for and running the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska.
Not a novice at running sled dogs, as Paulsen explains in his early chapters (he checks his traps around northern MN using a team), he believes that he would like to run the Iditarod race in Alaska. The only problem is that he doesn't know what to do or how to do show more it.
This hilarious tale is one of a man and his ignorance and maybe lost in the humor is the love story between he and his dogs he spends so much time with, yes, even Devil... It has everything, adventure, humor, love, dogs, friends, an all-too-knowing spouse, hate, races, and heartbreak.
Cannot recommend this higher. This is a book for everyone. Go get it! show less

“The sun is on my back like a golden friend on this perfect day.”

As the title announces, this is a picture book about a brief period in time, not even a day, really. Beautifully illustrated by Paulsen’s artist wife in an array of greens and blues, it appears to be a personal account of the author’s observations of the creatures on the periphery of a Minnesota lake. As he paddles his canoe about, he not only observes animals on the shore line—red-winged blackbirds, monarch show more butterflies, herons, a doe and her fawn, a fox, raccoon, frogs, and a snake—but also creatures on the lake’s still surface (a mallard hen and her ducklings “spread out like a spotted fan around her”) and in its depths—sunfish and “the cold slash of a hunting northern pike” moving “like an arrow through the [lily] pads.”

Paulsen’s prose is beautiful and poetic. The water, he tells us is “so quiet it becomes part of the sky”. He is part of the unity of elements, gliding through the “airwater,” moving peacefully on the “skylake.”

Ruth Wright Paulsen’s paintings are all double spreads, creating a sense of openness, spaciousness, limitlessness.

The only thing that puzzles me is Paulsen’s conclusion, in which he reviews some of the wildlife he’s observed. He mentions a badger, but there’s no badger here that I could detect, and I wonder how an editor could have missed that the word should’ve been “raccoon”.

Other than this, Canoe Days, though not my preferred type of picture book—because it lacks a plot, is a lovely enough text for its kind. show less

Read this survival YA classic during the Great Texas Freeze of 2021, while huddled under blankets during the daylight hours. I was hoping for a fictional disaster to take my mind off of my real-life, real-time, real-effin' cold disaster.

I'd say it mostly worked, a testament to Paulsen.

P.S. Mr. Ted Cruz who flew to the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun to escape the freeze just like the coward we know he is and with thoughts only of his super privileged little family (see Beto and AOC for how show more politician's service to others is done right), this 62 year old Texas survivor says he can now just go on to hell, where I hear it is warm all year round. show less

This short Newbery Honor book, meant for middle graders, is an amazing adventure story that I think is entertaining for all ages.

Brian Robeson is a thirteen year old who is the sole passenger of a Cessna, flying from New York on his way to the oil fields of Canada to spend the summer with his dad. His mother gives him a hatchet as a present, asking him to tie it onto his belt so she can see how it looks. And that hatchet, still on his belt when the pilot has a heart attack and the plane show more crashes, saves his life.

Brian starts out nauseated, afraid, and pretty helpless. But when he realizes he isn’t going to be rescued any time soon, if at all, he finally comes up with the inner resources to tend to his survival:

"He did not know how long it took, but later he looked back on this time of crying in the corner of the dark cave and thought of it as when he learned the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work. It wasn’t just that it was wrong to do or that it was considered incorrect. It was more than that – it didn’t work.”

He determines what does work, but it’s not easy, and he makes a lot of mistakes along the way. He has to figure out how to get food, water, warmth and protection from bugs, animals, and even the sun, and to prepare for all the unexpected surprises that regularly seem to come up in the wild. The process is riveting, even for adult readers!

Evaluation: I identified totally with Brian in all stages of his personal growth process in this book (although admittedly I could identify with the fear and incompetency phases more than the coping and surviving phases). I was never bored, and learned a great deal. It very much seemed like the story of “Cast Away” (the Tom Hanks movie), only a version for “young people.” My husband read it too: I said, “Oh, just read the first chapter and see what you think.” He didn’t put it down until he had finished it.

Simon & Schuster rates this book as recommended for ages 10-14. Personally, I’d call it “ages ten and up.” The prose is not as felicitous as it might be if written for adults, but if you remember that this tale is designed for middle grade readers, you'll appreciate the story all the more. show less