Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author's book Hatchet, this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

Because of his success surviving alone in the wilderness, fifteen-year-old Brian, profoundly changed by his time in the wild, is asked to undergo a similar experience to help scientists learn more about the psychology of survival.

A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.

When sickness decimates his fishing camp, an orphan named Leif flees north in a cedar canoe, journeying along a brutal but beautiful coastline.

Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly-arrived slave offers to teach her how to read.

Fourteen-year-old Kevin is very good at lying and doing so makes life easier, but when he finds himself in big trouble with his friends, family, and teachers, he must find a way to end his lies forever.

Guess what — Gary Paulsen was being kind to Brian. In Guts, Gary tells the real stories behind the Brian books, the stories of the adventures that inspired him to write Brian Robeson's story: working as an emergency volunteer; the death that inspired the pilot's death in Hatchet; plane crashes he has seen and near-misses of his own. He describes how he made his own bows and arrows, and takes readers on his first hunting trips, showing...

A fourteen-year-old Eskimo boy who feels assailed by the modernity of his life, takes a 1400-mile journey by dog sled seeking his own "song" of himself.

Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War, during which time she teaches others and lives a full life to the age of ninety-four.

When a little boy spends Christmas with his dying cousin, they discover that Santa really does exist.