Alone in the Wilderness with an Axe

Father Mike Schmitz has discovered one of the key tools in a speaker’s belt: story. His weekly homilies nearly always begin with relevant anecdotes, some of which are fun, others sad, and others thought-provoking. Scattered through the homilies are other tales, some of which involve his family members, and not long ago, one of these highlighted his sister, his nephew, and the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

Published in 1986, this book follows 13-year-old Brian Robeson into the Canadian wilderness. Here, he must survive with only his wits and a hatchet after the pilot of his plane dies of a heart attack. Paulsen convincingly depicts for readers how Brian flies and crash-lands the plane, but surviving that trauma is only the beginning of his trials.