Brian's Hunt

                                                                             

                                                 Brian’s Hunt by Gary Paulsen                       

Evan McCorkle

January 11, 2011

Brian has been on an island for two or three years. He is 16 and he learned a lot of things on the island. He learned how to hunt, use a bow and arrow, make a fire, build small shelters, and how to skin the animals. Now in the wilderness his main goal is survival.

It was summer and Brian was in the far reaches of the wilderness, but this time it was his choice to be there in the wild. While he was in his world, a lot of frightening things happened to Brian. When he was sleeping out on a river he kept hearing whines from an animal on the shore. Then he found out it was a dog, but he wondered if she had rabies. So he paddled strongly to the shore and finds the dog is injured. Next, he gets water from the river to clean out the cut, but does not have enough time to boil it because, it was getting too dark to stitch. So he goes and gets his fishing line and a needle so he can sew the wound but he has to stretch her skin so it would be able to be stitched. Now the dog isn’t in much pain anymore because Brian stitched it and put mud over the cut so flies wouldn’t get in the cut.

Later, it is winter and Brian finds David and Anne’s house. He knocks on the door and they let him in and they have a daughter named Susan, she is Brian’s age. But they say she is at school so David and Brian look at her pictures of when she was four years old. Then Brian leaves the house and goes back into the woods. He is happy to have made friends.

Its 2 months later and it’s spring and Brian wants to know who’s dog he has found. He gets packed and goes to the north were the Cree Camp is. They go through many dams, swamps, and rivers until he gets to the camp. When he gets out on the shore he smells something terrible in a cabin and he yells, “IS ANYONE THERE!” Nobody answers, so he goes in the cabin to see what happened. He looks at the flies and removes the torn sleeping bags and finds David dead. He goes to the kennel and finds four dog cages and 3 dead dogs. Then he notices there are bear tracks and decides to follow them and finds Anne dead with her bottom gone. So he follows the tracks and sees them following the river so Brian follows the tracks in his boat and he ends up finding Susan. Brian yells her name and startles her, so she jumped in her boat and she was exhausted. So Brian ties her canoe to his and starts paddling back to camp and when they get there Brian tells her that her parents are dead. Then Brian makes graves for them and the three dogs and puts crosses on them. Next Susan finds a radio that still works and calls for help. Help arrives and Susan gives Brian a hug and gives him her address and phone number and leaves. Lastly, Brian is determined to kill the bear that killed two people and three dogs. 

I enjoyed the book, Brian’s Hunt because it was action packed and gory. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in action packed with gore.