Book Report

Brian’s Adventures

Gary Paulsen

Adventure

Hi, my name is Brian. A couple of years ago I was on a plane going to visit my Dad. During that flight something happened. The plane crashed. The pilot died and because he was the only passenger on the plane. The pilot crashed the plane in a forest. Brian’s mother and father were told by experts that there was absolutely no way that Brian could have survived. After 3 weeks of Brian being in the forest by himself he was found. His parents were happy that he didn’t die. To stay alive Brian had built a shelter and found food. All by himself alone in the middle of a forest with thousands of acres of land and he still managed to stay alive long enough to be found. Now a couple years later three men sent by the government came knocking on my door asking for my mom. I told them now wasn’t a good time because she wasn’t home but later that night he came back to see if she had returned home. Later that night only one of the three men came back. His name was Derek.  They sat down at Brian’s dining room table to talk about what Derek wanted. Derek wanted to ask Brian and his mother if Brian would like to help the government by going back into the forest. At this time you might be thinking that this is a crazy idea. Brian almost died and now Derek is asking Brian and his mother if Brian would go back out into the forest. It seems crazy but it would help many people. Derek wants to do this because it will help him to teach others about survival skills to other pilots and also the air force just in case anyone ever crashed or got shot down. The main problem in The River is while Brian and Derek are in the forest during a lightning storm; Derek reaches for the radio to call for a plane to pick them up from in the forest because the storm is so bad. As Derek reaches for the radio lightning strikes hits a tree and jumps through the rough of their shelter, in to the radio and into Derek. Brian and Derek were both struck by lightning.

The main characters in The River are Brian and Derek. Derek is a younger man around 35 who works for the government. Brian is just a teenager who goes to school just like every other teenager. All of the characters in The River are all very life like people. The only thing I think isn’t realistic about Brian is that basically no one in the real world would be able to survive in a forest by themselves for almost a whole month with only a hatchet. I think that Brian is kind of different. I don’t think that he would have been able to survive a whole month in a forest unless he was smart enough meaning that I think that Brian is mentally very strong but physically unfit. Brian’s importance in the story is first off he’s the main character and also he is the reason that him and Derek went in to the forest. Derek’s importance in this story is he wants to get a real experience surviving in the forest with nothing so he can teach it to other people who are in the air force.

The River is a mix of three themes. These themes are family life, friendship, and survival. This book makes me think about many things. Survival is an important theme in this book because without Brian’s survival skills, Brian and Derek would have died during the lightning storm or even after while Derek was in a coma. Family life is an important theme in this book because Brian was probably scared that he would never see his family again especially while he and Derek were on the raft and Brian fell out of the raft and almost drown. Friendship is also an important theme because if Derek and Brian didn’t become friends than they would have died without each other’s help; because teamwork is key especially in a problem like Brian’s and Derek’s.  While I was reading this book all I could think about was how thankful I was for everything that I had such as food, shelter, and friends. 

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book because is an adventure book which is mainly the books that I like to read and also because it is an unusual read for most people. There aren’t many books like this that I have read. I think this book didn’t affect me too much. The only way it affected me is probably just to be a bit more thankful for what I have and all the privileges. I can’t and hopefully won’t ever be able to relate to any of the characters in this book. If I was put in the same situation that Brian and Derek were put in, I don’t think I would last that long.

By: Jacob Bates