Summary

Ch. 1 summary

Brian Robeson is a thirteen year old boy who is flying to see his father who lives in Canada because his parents are divorced. His mother gave him a hatchet before he left. Brian got on the plane and noticed the pilot had gas later on the pilot had a heart attack. Brian doesn't know what to do and he is alone on the plane.

Ch. 2 summary

 Brian has no idea what he should do. He finds a radio and try to contact anybody, but all he gets is static he's almost positive that he will crash and die he keeps trying to use the radio but it didn't work again then a bit of turbulence

Ch. 3 summary

            Brian tries to find a place to land the plane. He sees an L-shaped lake. He tries to fly the plane over to it. He crashes into the lake and at first; he cannot get out of the plane. He has to take off his seatbelt. Then he gets out and his windbreaker is caught on the glass as he goes through the windshield. He grabs grass and weeds and pulls himself on land. He lies down and falls into a dark and troublesome sleep.

Ch. 4 summary

            Brian wakes up and is aching badly. He was cold. Hordes of mosquitoes were biting him. The secret that keeps troubling him is he saw his mother with another man in a car while riding on a motorcycle with his friend. All around him, he sees green colors when the sun comes up. At the lake, he saw a beaver, a large bird, and hundreds of fish. He fell asleep after seeing new things.

Ch. 5 summary

            His eyes hammered open. He was thirsty and his face was burning. He went to the lake and drank water until he felt he stomach would explode. He started walking away and he threw up most of the water. He thought about where he was and if his parents will find him. Brian’s stomach was rumbling. He was hungry. He had a flashback about an English teacher he had named Perpich. Perpich always talked about being positive. Brian did not have much stuff, mostly money. At the end of this chapter, he started looking for shelter and food.

Ch. 6 summary

Brian finds a stone ridge and decides that it would be his shelter. The ridge had a small cave it was not very deep but it had a roof that he could almost stand under. He makes plans to make his shelter better. He remembers a television show he saw once where the pilots had to survive in a harsh climate for a week. He looks for berry bushes and sees many birds singing ahead. He goes to explore and sees them eating berries. He starts eating berries and gets full. He then fills up his jackets with berries and goes back to his camp. He gets sticks to try to close up the shelter. He falls asleep when he is done.

Ch. 7 summary

            Brian woke up with his stomach hurting and went back to sleep. When he got up the second time he went to the lake and looked at his reflection he was cut and bloody. He was hungry again so he ate some raspberries. He got scared when he saw a bear, but it left him alone. The raspberries he had were soft, the juice was seeping through the jacket, he started to drink it, and it was good. He fell asleep before darkness came.

Ch. 8 summary

            Brian heard a growl in the middle of the night. He smelled a rotting smell and became scared. He threw his hatchet towards the sound and missed and it hit a rock and made sparks.  The animal that was there was a porcupine and it poked him in his leg with its quills. He pulled out the quills and went back to sleep. He awoke and remembered what he saw last night with the hatchet, the sparks. He swung the flat end of the hatchet on the rock and sparks flew everywhere. He smiled.  

Ch. 9 summary

            Brian rips up a twenty-dollar bill. He uses it to make a fire with the sparks. He gets bark for fuel and he blows on the sparks when they hit the bark. At first nothing and then he has a small fire going. He uses the fire as a guard. And he uses it as warmth. He also used as a shelter.

Ch. 10 summary

                        Brian tries to keep the fire going. He finds eggs from a turtle and eats them raw. The first egg was very greasy.  At the end of the chapter, he hopes the searchers would find him before he eats all the eggs. Brian has to keep getting wood for the shelter, so the fire won't go out and he will be cold.

Ch. 11 summary

Ch. 12 summary

            Brian decides to make a spear to catch the fish easier. Then Brain hears a plane coming and he quickly tries to make a big bonfire to get the attention of the pilot, but the pilot doesn't see the bonfire and passes Brian by. Brian thinks that he will never get out of the Canadian woods.

Ch. 13 summary

Ch. 14 summary

            Something awakened Brian. It was a skunk that had found the turtle eggs. The skunk sprayed him and he ran to the lake to get the liquid out of his eyes. Brian remade his shelter. He made a ladder to climb to a ledge above where he would store his food. He made a fish trap to catch many fish at once.

Ch. 15 summary

Brian went hunting and could not get anything at first. He sat down under a tree, when he got up a bird flew, and he saw how he could get one. A while later he uses his spear and gets the bird’s neck. He takes it back to the shelter and cleans it. He cooks it, eats it, and says it is the best thing he has ever eaten.

Ch. 16 summary

Brian got another fool bird. He went to the lake to wash his hands and a moose came from nowhere. It knocked him into the lake. It kept hitting him and then it started eating. He had trouble breathing because his ribs were messed up. He went back to his shelter and slept. Wind like the sound of a train awakened him. It was a tornado and it destroyed his shelter. The tornado put out his fire, so mosquitoes came and bit him. He went back to sleep. When he woke up, he was parched, so he went to the lake and saw the tail of the plane sticking out of the lake. That reminded him of the dead pilot. He made up a prayer: have rest. Have rest forever.

Ch. 17 summary

            Brian made another fire and went to look for wood to fix his shelter. He went to sleep. When he woke up his ribs were better. He made another fish spear and caught three fish. He ate the fish and worked on making a raft. He called it Brush pile one. He started to go to the plane, but it started getting late, so he ate three more fish and went to sleep. He woke up and went to the plane on the raft. There was no opening above water so he would have to dive underwater. 

Ch. 18 summary

            Brian is at the plane trying to find a way in. he cannot find one so he hits the planes outside and the metal moves. He hits it a few more times. Then he uses the hatchet to cut a hole in the plane. He drops the hatchet into the lake. He uses his feet to push off the bottom of the raft so he can go very fast and get the hatchet. When he got it, he got back to the surface and made the hole bigger. He climbs in and dives down to find the survival kit and he sees the pilot. The pilots head had holes in it from the fish nibbling on him. Brian goes back to the surface and climbs out to put the kit on the raft and go back to his shelter.

Ch. 19 summary

            When Brian wakes up, he looks through the survival kit. In it, he finds a sleeping bag, an aluminum cook set, matches, lighters, a sheath knife with a compass in the handle, first-aid kit, a cap, a fishing kit, soap, Survival rifle with clip and a box of 50 shells. When he was done looking at the rifle, he saw an emergency transmitter. He flipped the switch back and forth. He left it on, but he thought it did not work. In another part of the kit were some bags of food. All he had to do was fill one of the pots with water, put the food in, and hold the pot over the fire to cook. When the food was cooking, it gave off a marvelous smell. When he was daydreaming about the food, he heard a noise like a plane above him. Sure enough, he saw a plane fly over him and land in the lake. The pilot came out and said he heard the emergency transmitter and that Brian is the kid that was lost. Brian asked him if he wanted something to eat.