Brian's+Winter

= = =media type="custom" key="3427544"= = = =Freak the Mighty- Rodman Philbrick= Philbrick's novel of two handicapped and troubled young men, one smaller than a yardstick and the other outgrowing size thirteen shoes, is about the strength of friendship, family, intelligence, and life. The poignant story is told from the perspective of Max, who through the life and death of his friend Kevin, learns to respect his own intelligence and endure his own frightening heritage. = = =The Sign of the Beaver - Elizabeth George Speare= When his father returns East to collect the rest of the family, 13-year-old Matt is left alone to guard his family's newly built homestead. One day, Matt is brutally stung when he robs a bee tree for honey. He returns to consciousness to discover that his many stings have been treated by an old Native American and his grandson. Matt offers his only book as thanks, but the old man instead asks Matt to teach his grandson Attean to read. Both boys are suspicious, but Attean comes each day for his lesson. In the mornings, Matt tries to entice Attean with tales from __Robinson Crusoe__, while in the afternoons, Attean teaches Matt about wilderness survival and Native American culture. The boys become friends in spite of themselves, and their inevitable parting is a moving tribute to the ability of shared experience to overcome prejudice.

=My Side of the Mountain- Jean Craighead George= Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. Sam learns to live off the land, and grows up a little in the process. Blizzards, hunters, loneliness, and fear all battle to drive Sam back to city life. But his desire for freedom, independence, and adventure is stronger. No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons.

=**Hatchet - Gary Paulson**= Hatchet is the story of a boy named Brian. On a trip to the Canadian oilfields to spend the summer with his dad, the pilot of the Cessna he is traveling in suffers a heart attack and dies. Brian must land the plane in the forest. Brian learns to exist in in this wilderness. He faces many dangers including hunger, animal attacks, and even a tornado. This book gives the reader a better understanding of what it is like to survive in an untamed land.

=**Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt**=

Imagine coming upon a fountain of youth in a forest. To live forever--isn't that everyone's ideal? For the Tuck family, eternal life is a reality, but their reaction to their fate is surprising. Award winner Natalie Babbitt outdoes herself in this sensitive, moving adventure in which 10-year-old Winnie Foster is kidnapped, finds herself helping a murderer out of jail, and is eventually offered the ultimate gift--but doesn't know whether to accept it. Babbitt asks profound questions about the meaning of life and death, and leaves the reader with a greater appreciation for the perfect cycle of nature. = =

**[[image:worms.jpg width="144" height="144"]]How to Eat Fried Worms - Thomas Rockwell**
Billy, Alan, and Joe go over to Tom’s house. They ask Tom why he wasn’t at the thing last night. He says it was because his parents kept him in. They asked why his parents kept him in. He said it was because he wouldn’t eat his dinner. They ask Tom why he didn’t eat his dinner. He said it was because it was salmon casserole. Billy said he would eat anything before being sent upstairs without dinner. Somebody asked if he’d eat mud. Billy said, “Yeah, all mud is is dirt and water and my Dad says that everybody eats a pound of dirt a year!” “How about poison,” somebody asked. Billy said that poison is a different story. “How about worms,” someone else asked. Billy said that he would eat worms because all they are is dirt. “But they bleed!” “So what, Cows bleed,” said Billy. And that’s how the dare of eating worms started. Billy is dared to eat 15 fried worms in 15 days. If he eats the 15 worms in 15 days then Alan and Joe have to give Billy $50 to buy a mini bike. If he can’t do it, then Billy has to give Allan and Joe $50 to both of them. Alan and Joe try to do everything to try to stop Billy from eating those 15 worms in 15 days.

=Brian's Winter - Gary Paulson= In Hatchet, 13-year-old Brian learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed with only a hatchet. He was rescued at the end of the summer. Brian's Winter begins where Hatchet might have ended--Brian is not rescued, but must rely on his survival skills to face his deadliest enemy--a northern winter.

=Holes - Louis Sachar= Stanley Yelnats is unjustly sent to Camp Green Lake where he and other boys are sentenced to dig holes to build character. Stanley learns the warden has them digging holes for something else- but what?