Thank You, Gary

A friend texted me Friday morning to let me know that author Gary Paulsen had died on Thursday. It's a bit difficult to explain, but I felt saddened by the news all weekend. His books were a big part of our lives, and I know that's true for many other readers and families. 

Justin was a reluctant reader. I used to cringe when he told me he had to do a book report in elementary and middle school as I knew there would be a fight (or two) and some tears before the dreaded book report deadline. He would only read books about nature, animals, or adventure, so first came the issue of choosing a book. I think Justin chose Mr. Tucket himself based on the cover, but once he had discovered Gary Paulsen, choosing a book, reading it, and even writing the book report became much easier. 

Thankfully, Paulsen was a prolific author. The Tucket Adventures is a series of five books. He primarily wrote for children, but I think adults could learn a thing or two from his books. Some of them deal with adult topics, like Soldier's Heart and The Rifle, but he never wrote down to kids. I distinctly remember the discussions Justin and I had after he read those two books, and they were valuable for both of us. 

Then there is the Hatchet series, the books Paulsen may be best known for. Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to Canada in a small plane when the pilot suffers a heart attack, the plane crashes, and Brian has to survive with just his hatchet and resourcefulness. Gary Paulsen wrote four sequels to Hatchet, The River, Brian's Winter, Brian's Return, and Brian's Hunt. In Guts, Paulsen does just what the subtitle suggests, tells the true stories behind Hatchet and the Brian books. He could write these stories and readers responded to them because he lived them. In addition to his career as an author, he also worked as an engineer, construction worker, ranch hand, truck driver and sailor, and twice competed in the Iditarod. All of these served as inspirations for his novels. In his personal survival story, Gone to the Woods, he wrote the story of surviving his own lost childhood. What saved a young Gary Paulsen was the library and a librarian.

"And it became a sanctuary for me. The librarian - she watched me for a while. I was kind of this urchin, you know, a street urchin. Then she finally said, you want something? I said, nah I'm OK. And she gave me a card and - hard to talk about it. It was a card with my name on it. And, God, nobody had given me a - anything like that. Nobody gave me anything. She said, you should write down some of your thought pictures, which I called them, you know. I said, who - for who? And she said, me. None of this would have happened except for that."

It's sad to think that Gary Paulsen is no longer with us to write stories of survival and the wilderness. But he's left a legacy of over 200 books for readers of all types to discover, appreciate, and grow through reading. My sincere thanks go out to Gary Paulsen for all he has given and written.