Okay, so I've been teaching Hatchet, by Mr. Gary Paulsen, famed young adult author and survivalist, for several years. I had always heard about his autobiographical book, but had never taken the time to dig into it.
Then along came the Common Core. The Common Core, as you may know, is asking our students to really dig into texts, to find deeper meaning, to compare the aspects of the text to other texts or parts of the same text. So I had this stroke of "genius." Well, it probably wasn't genius so much as a desire to change up the way that I've been doing things. My students always love reading Hatchet, year after year, and I love reading it over and over, so we're always in a good place together. They love hearing about the fact that Paulsen got so many of his ideas for the book from his own life and his own survival experiences.
I'm so thankful for the Book A Day challenge, which enabled me to get right into Guts today. Sounds pretty disgusting, doesn't it?
This book is written much in the way that Paulsen writes Hatchet, and you feel as if you're sitting right there with him around a campfire, listening to stories about his life. If you've ever taught Hatchet, you know that it is written in a "stream of consciousness" style of writing. The kids love it, because it mirrors the way that they think, the way that they speak. It is the same in Guts. Paulsen may begin telling one story, jump ship to a similar story or explanation, and then circle back around to the original story. I love it.
I highly recommend Guts. If you're an addict of the Brian series, you will absolutely eat it up. Not unlike the guts that Paulsen tells of eating.
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