What I’ve Been Reading: Woods Runner

I just finished up the book Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen.  I’ve long been a Gary Paulsen fan.  It all started when reading to my children when they were little.  Some of our favorites are Hatchet, The River, Brian’s Winter, The Rifle, Soldier’s Heart, but our favorites by far where the Tucket books, Tucket’s Travels: Francis Tucket’s Adventures in the West, 1847-1849.

The Tucket series I’ve read twice.  Once I read them to our kids and another time I read them to the childcare kids.  Everyone has LOVED them.  How can you not when a boy gets stolen by the Indians and saved by a one armed mountain man?  If you have younger elementary kiddos in your life they are a must read.

Anyway..back to my book I just finished….Woods Runner.  I was hoping that Gary Paulsen wouldn’t let me down and of course, he didn’t.

Gary Paulsen is children’s literature writer..one of the best in my opinion.I’ve read very little about the Revolutionary War so I really enjoyed learning more about it.  As Paulsen writes he does a little piece in between the chapters to explain a bit of the history of the war and how it relates to the story.  I was never very long…only a paragraph at most…and all very important to the story.  Initially I thought in might be distracting but I found I very much appreciated it.  I can see it especially helpful if a youngster was reading the story.

Here’s what Amazon had to say, “Samuel, 13, spends his days in the forest, hunting for food for his family. He has grown up on the frontier of a British colony, America. Far from any town, or news of the war against the King that American patriots have begun near Boston.

But the war comes to them. British soldiers and Iroquois attack. Samuel’s parents are taken away, prisoners. Samuel follows, hiding, moving silently, determined to find a way to rescue them. Each day he confronts the enemy, and the tragedy and horror of this war. But he also discovers allies, men and women working secretly for the patriot cause. And he learns that he must go deep into enemy territory to find his parents: all the way to the British headquarters, New York City.”

Amazon readers give the book 4.5 stars.  I’m gonna agree..It was a really good book.  If I had a few tween aged boys in my life I’d definitely be reading this to them.  I’m off to see if my online library has more Paulsen books…I’ve never gotten a bad one from him.