Gone to the Woods
Surviving A Lost Childhood
Book - 2021 | First edition
His name is synonymous with high-stakes wilderness survival stories. Now, beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen, he may never have become a reader. And without his desperate teenage enlistment in the military, he would not have discovered his true calling as a storyteller. A moving and enthralling story of grit and growing up, this book is perfect for newcomers and lifelong fans alike, from the acclaimed author at his rawest and most real.
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Publisher:
New York, NY :, Farrar Straus Giroux,, 2021
Edition:
First edition
ISBN:
9780374314156
Branch Call Number:
j921 PAU
Characteristics:
357 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Alternative Title:
Surviving a lost childhood
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Add a CommentExcellent, well written. I highly recommend this book for all age groups and hope many Juvenile readers will pick this up.
Surviving a Lost Childhood is the perfect subtitle for Paulsen’s memoir. By using third person, he gave the story the feel it needs. Always called The Boy, Paulsen makes clear the lack of human love in his life. At five, when went to live with an aunt and uncle, he had a chance to understand what caring adults could mean to him. That joy was short lived as he was returned to his drunken parents. But like many misfits, he found his place in a library and books. Long before he wrote Hatchet he was living his own survival story. A librarian and the Army rescued him and showed him the power he had as a storyteller. While this release is being labeled as children’s nonfiction/middle grades, it deserves a place on adult shelves, particularly for those who fondly remember Paulsen’s ability to pull the reader into a story.