A Story of Survival

By Anonymous (not verified), 16 March, 2026
A Story of Survival “Brian Robeson was stopped and stricken with a white flash of horror, a terror so intense that his breathing, his thinking, and his heart had nearly stopped.” This quote from the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen shows why this book was too good to put down. Brian Robeson, an eleven year old boy, left his home in New York to go to Canada to see his father. He was on a plane (a two person plane) in the middle of the Canadian forest when the pilot had a heart attack. Brian was stranded in the air with no real knowledge on how to fly a plane. Brian had to make the BIGGEST dicision of his life. Whether to keep flying or to just let the plane drop. If he let it drop, the only weapon he had was a hatchet. I feel that the author of this book, Gary Paulsen, is trying to tell his readers, if you believe in yourself, you can survive on your own. I really liked this book because it sounded like it could really happen. I enjoy books like that, and I’d recommend this book to anyone. Also, as I said, it kept me reading. I couldn’t put it down until I found out what was going to happen to Brian.
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Literature Response Rubric

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Title:

Structure

The writing . . .

  • contains an effective beginning, middle, and ending.
  • presents a clearly stated focus or opinion statement.
  • includes transitions as needed to connect ideas and paragraphs.

Ideas

  • reflects the writer’s clear understanding of the literature.
  • includes specific details and quotations from the text to develop or support the thesis.
  • sounds believable and informed.
  • exhibits a careful choice of words.
  • flows smoothly from one idea to the next.

Conventions

  • follows the standards for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.
  • cites quotations correctly.

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