Hatchet

Written by: Gary Paulsen

First line: Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below.

Why you should read this book: Thirteen-year-old Brian is consumed with the secret knowledge that his mother cheated on his father, which is why they are divorced, and the reason Brian is a passenger in a Cessna flying across Canada to spend the summer with his father in the oil fields, all of which becomes suddenly much less important when the pilot has a heart attack and dies mid-flight. Armed with only the little hatchet his mother gave him before his trip, Brian manages to survive the crash and use every ounce of strength in his body and lick of intelligence in his brain to continue surviving alone in the wilderness. A modern-day boy-versus-nature story highlighting the resilience of the human spirit and the boundless nature of human ingenuity in the face of uncertainty.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would never give a teenager an edged blade.