Student Review: Woods Runner (Paulsen)

Title: Woods Runner

Author: Gary Paulsen
Genre: Historical Fiction, Survival
Pages: 165
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars


Samuel’s parents get taken. This all happened when Samuel went out hunting, like every other days. However, the only different thing from that ‘every other days’ are that British soldiers come and take his parents as prisoners and kill their neighbors. When Samuel finds out, he gets extremely mad. He gets determined to find his parents and seek revenge. He finds them, but then fails to save them. Other people continuously save him from disaster, but he also witnesses how violently the British treated the Colonists. From killing the British soldiers, to giving Samuel food, the author describes how the Colonists came together to save one another, during hard times, which took great affect in the story. With determination and anger mixed together, he heads for New York where prisoners are.


Like other Gary Paulsen books like Hatchet, the theme was basically the same, which is coming of age. Samuel learns to be more mature as in decisions, as the book goes on. He also realizes how much he needs his parents in his life. Lastly, he sees what hardships other people go through because of the trouble of the British soldiers. I picked this book because the last Gary Paulsen book I read, Hatchet, was a really good book to me. When I heard that the author published another book, the memory just made me read this book. An interesting character was Samuel, not just because that he was the main character, but because he was about the same age as me and I could just see the difference between him and me (during that period of time and at the present).


Overall, this was a really good book because the author did a good job on making the parts in the book seem so realistic. However, the book seemed too short. At certain times, it felt like summarizing the important events. I thought the author would explain more, but he didn’t. Still, it was in the between good and fascinating, so I gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. People who like other books from Gary Paulsen like Hatchet, and Woodsong. This book made me think of Hatchet, because some parts were very similar.


If your parents get taken, and everything falls down in your world, what would you do? Would you just pretend nothing happened and act like nothing happened? Or would you try to get your parents back? That is the decision. –Kevin, 8th Grade

Thanks, Kevin! I reviewed the book on the blog back in April.  You can read my review here, though it is not nearly as detailed as Kevin's.  This book is nominated for Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) 2011...stay tuned to see if it makes the winning list.