• Background to the text

• Pre-reading and predictions

• Unit expectations

Do Now: Look at the cover of the book and the blurb. Discuss with the person next to you what you think the book is about and what things you might need to know more about while reading the book.

Learning Intention: To understand the background to the text, including the historical, social, and environmental context.

Success Criteria: I can demonstrate pre-reading understanding and make predictions about the novel to improve my understanding of events and the context in which the text is set.

Leave Pass: Booklet chapter tasks completed

Pre-reading Slideshow and discussion questions

We are introduced to Brian Robeson, 13-14 years of age who is on his way to see his dad who works as a miner in the Canadian wilderness. We also find out that Brian’s parents are recently divorced and Brian knows a secret about why it happened that involves his mum. While Brian was flying in a small plane the pilot has a massive heart attack and dies, 7000 feet in the air. Brian is left alone in the roaring plane.

Brian attempts to use the plane’s radio without success. But he is able to steer the plane for a while, before the plane sputters and the engine dies, and the plane begins to descend.

Hatchet: ‘Because, But’ Sentence Task

There are sentence starters in the first column. In the second column, write an ending for each sentence. Base your sentences on events and situations from the book. The first two sentences have been completed for you as examples.

The plane descends and Brian manages to crash land the plane in a lake. Brian is able to escape through a broken window. Brian is injured, but manages to swim to shore before he collapses.

The chapter starts with Brian remembering the day that he saw his mother sitting in a stranger's car, a blonde man who Brian didn’t know. Brian then wakes up and takes in his surroundings, and is attacked by mosquitoes relentlessly. Brian eventually finds a warm spot in the sun, resting his damaged body, and falls to sleep.

Brian quenched his thirst and forced himself to get his thoughts together to begin to help himself. Brian realises that he may not get rescued quickly and has to help himself. 

Brian spends time finding a place for a shelter, and then successfully manages to locate some berries, eating a heap of them. Brian then returns to the lake and continues to improve his shelter against the rock wall. 

Brian throws up after eating too many ‘gut cherries’, he then found raspberries, but also ran into a bear, realising that he needed to be more watchful of wild animals. He ate a lot of raspberries and returned to his shelter which he is now referring to as his home.

Brian was attacked by a porcupine while he slept in the cave, he was injured when he kicked the porcupine and saw sparks fly off the rock wall when he threw his hatchet towards it. Brian realised that there was flint in the rock wall and that he could possibly make fire through using his steel hatchet to create sparks. 

In the start of this chapter Brian uses a flint to make sparks, and after many attempts he got the fire going, using birch bark peels. Brian thought to himself that he would have loved to have someone to share this experience with. Brian remembered the secret and thought about his family.

Brian collected piles of wood during the day so that he had wood to get through the night. Brian heard a rustling sound during the night and discovered turtle eggs, which he ate and made sure that he kept some for the next few days. Brian also realised that he could use smoke/fire to make a signal and increase his chances of rescue. 

Brian chopped up wood for the signal fire, he realised that he had mentally and physically changed and grown throughout his experience. Brian also realised that there was a lot of fish to be caught, and started to develop an idea to spear the fish.

Brian realised that he could not catch fish using the spear, and decided that he to create a bow and arrow. Brian was busying himself searching for the right wood for a bow and arrow, when he heard the sound of a plane. However Brian was not able to attract its attention and the plane flew off, leaving Brian feeling hopeless. 

42 days had passed and Brian had changed from being devastated about not being rescued, to having a ‘tough hope’ due to realising that he could look after himself and survive. Brian had worked out how to catch fish and had made a bow and arrow, and was now able to feed himself. 

Brian was sprayed by a skunk, which caused Brian to make a better shelter. Brian also made a food shelf on the rock wall with a ladder, in order to keep it out of the way of animals. Brian also made a fish trap by using rocks to section off an area, and food to attract them, lastly using a gate of saplings to keep them trapped. 

Brian worked hard to get some meat, eventually successfully killing a ‘foolbird’ using his spear in a thrusting motion. After working out how to pluck, gut, cook it, Brian mentions that never has he tasted anything so good as that ‘first meat’. 

Brian worked out a way of making arrows with feathers and pitch and managed to shoot both birds and rabbits with them. However, when he was getting a drink from the lake Brian was attacked by a moose and hurt badly. Brian returned to his shelter just before a tornado arrived and caused havoc. The next morning Brian noticed the tail of the plane sticking out of the lake.

Brian begins to rebuild his shelter and build a fire. Brian realises that the plane had a survival pack on it, and this would be full of resources. Brian realised that he needed to build a raft to use as a base to get into the plane and find the survival pack. Brian manages to build a raft and swim out to the plane, but cannot work out a way to get in. 

Brian continues to work on getting into the plane, finally managing to break into the aluminium fuselage. However, Brian dropped the hatchet and had to struggle desperately to recover the hatchet. Eventually he got himself into the fuselage and managed to find the survival kit, as he was pulling the bag free, Brian saw the half eaten, loosely wobbly head of the pilot, which had been eaten by the fish. Brian dragged the survival kit to shore, eventually making it back to his ‘home’.

Brian went through the survival kit and found: pots, drinks, rifle, knife, lighter, sleeping bag, heaps of food, and an emergency transmitter. Brian turned the transmitter on and started cooking, getting himself an orange sugary drink. As he was about to start eating his first meal a plane landed and the pilot said, “Damn, you’re him aren’t you, you’re that kid”. (p-154) At first Brian couldn’t speak, eventually telling the pilot his name and asking him whether he wants anything to eat.