It’s a gripping tale of survival set in the most inhospitable place on Earth. They dealt with extreme weather, plunging temperatures, and perilous ice. Before they reached land, ice closed in and stranded them in the Antarctic. Lost in the Antarctic: The Doomed Voyage of the Endurance by Tod Olsonįirst on our list of Hatchet read-alikes is a nonfiction book about a team of British explorers who made an ill-fated attempt to hike across the Antarctic in 1914. Want to save this post for later? Pin this image to your Pinterest board! You’ll find both middle grade and young adult survival stories on this reading list, along with the recommended age range for each book. I haven’t read every book on this list, but the ones I have read will have a “Content Advisory” listed.

Here are 13 books to read if you loved Hatchet. I’m thrilled to see more books like Hatchet on the market, and I hope this trend continues. Recently, I’ve seen an upward trend in young adult books about wilderness survival. Give me a book that can portray the strength of the human spirit, the will to survive, and the ability to beat the odds-and I’m all over it. Even now, I love wilderness survival stories. I grew up surrounded by the vast Canadian Rockies and the few people who carved out a life there.īrian’s story of crash-landing a plane in the middle of the Canadian wilderness and surviving on nothing but his wits was real to me as a kid. Every student (all 10 of us!) received their Hunter’s Safety Certification at school. Outdoor education (a broad term for survival skills, animal identification, and gun safety) was an annually required class at my junior high. Considering the area I grew up in, this isn’t a surprise. I also gobbled up all the books like Hatchet I could get my hands on. I must have read it a thousand times as a young teen.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is one of my all-time favorite books. Book Roundup, Middle Grade, Young Adult Books.13 Wilderness Survival Books Like Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Gary paulsen books