Into the Wild: Reading Outdoor Survival Stories

Lafayette students are on the trail to reading adventure, exploring a Kids Versus Nature theme. 
Reading Road Trippers are completing projects, earning points for their Homeroom Teams, and sharing book recommendations with friends.

Page-turning adventure: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.  After a traumatic plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days alone in the wilderness, learning to survive with courage, determination, and the aid of a hatchet given to him by his mother.  With no time for self-pity or despair, Brian's experience teaches him how to deal with his parents' recent divorce.  Take a look at a book commercial for this 1988 Newbery Honor winner, featuring Owen as Brian, Isabella as Brian's Mom, and Patrick as the Pilot:

Life-Changing Escape to the Forest: My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  In this 1960 Newbery Honor classic, Sam Gribley, unhappy living in New York City with his family, runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live alone in the woods.  Carrying only a penknife, a ball of cord, flint and steel, and forty dollars, he intends to survive on his own.  During his year in the wilderness, Sam learns about survival, self-reliance, dependence on nature (including friendship with a peregrine falcon named Frightful) and comes to understand that he needs human companionship.

Survival and a New Way of Seeing: The Cay by Theodore Taylor.  Twelve-year-old Philip Enright is excited when the Germans invade his small island home of Curacao.  World War II has always seemed a distant game to him, and he is eager to witness it firsthand—until a torpedo strikes the United States-bound freighter he and his safety-concerned mother have boarded.  When Philip regains consciousness, he is floating on a raft in the middle of the sea, his only companions a cat and a compassionate, elderly West Indian named Timothy. Philip remembers his mother’s warning about black people: They are different and they live differently.  By the time the castaways wash ashore on a small sandy island, however, Philip’s head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy for survival.  Over time, Philip learns a new way of seeing and important lessons about courage, friendship, and overcoming prejudice.

Lafayette Fiction Favorite: Escaping the Giant Wave by Peg Kehret.  The Pacific Coast adventure begins while thirteen-year-old Kyle is babysitting his sister during a family vacation at an Oregon resort. An earthquake creates a tsunami, and Kyle must try to save himself, his sister, and a boy who has bullied him for years. Reading Road Trippers Alexandra D. and Mary Kate W. plunge right into Giant Wave action. Alexandra gives the survival story high marks: “It’s like you are in the book… It is so descriptive.” Camryn D. would definitely read other books by Peg Kehret, sharing that Escaping the Giant Wave is “thrilling, scary, and intense.” Sage S. recommends the book to “people who like excitement and adventure.” And while Teresa G. portrays the action as “exhilarating,” she cautions friends who are scared of the water or anxious about earthquakes and tsunamis to think twice before choosing this book.

Poster by Brooke, Kylie, Carly, and C.C.

Escaping the Giant Wave includes an author’s note with facts and information about tsunamis. We can learn more about the science of giant waves, experimenting with a Savage Seas Wave Machine. Click on the red-highlighted words to get started!