Monday, November 09, 2009

The Order of The Hatchet Series

This isn't about my preschool storytimes at all but I just spent a few hours working this out so want to document it somewhere on the web. Here is what I think is the ideal order for reading The Hatchet series in.

The Hatchet books are a series written by Gary Paulsen. They are also known as Brian's Saga, The Brian Books and The Brian Robeson Series.

1 Hatchet (1987)
2 The River AKA Hatchet : The Return AKA The Return (1991)
ISBN 0385303882
3 Hatchet : Winter AKA Brian's Winter (1996)
This book was written after The River but is based on events as they would have developed in an alternate ending for Hatchet. In order to read the series and not have any contradictions, it is best to read The River before reading Hatchet : Winter and to disregard The River in relation to the continuity of the series.
4 Hatchet : The Call AKA Brian's Return (1999) ISBN 0330376020
The alternate title for this book is very similar to the alternate titles of The River so ensure that the correct title is ordered. For this reason, ISBN numbers are included for both of these titles.
5 Brian's Hunt (2003)
6 Hatchet : The Truth (2001) AKA Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and The Brian Books

This book is not strictly part of The Hatchet Series. But will be of interest to readers of the series. It is a non-fiction book by Gary Paulsen detailing his life experience that inspired him to write The Hatchet Series.

Hope this helps some people. I spent a while looking for a definitive answer online.