Best Books for Boys Who Hate to Read
Brian’s Hunt by Gary Paulsen is Sam Grimby, of My Side of the Mountain, a little older morphed with the movie starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer called The Ghost and The Darkness. At 103 slim pages, this book is a perfect read for reluctant boy readers. With one climatic chapter that is a little gory, because there is a devil muckwa (Cree for devil bear) involved — think back to the possessed lions in The Ghost and The Darkness and I’d place this book for 4th through 6th graders depending on how they can handle a little blood and gore.
This book is the sequel to Hatchet about Brian as a 13-year-old who is the sole survivor of a small plane crash and learns to survive in the Canadian wilderness for 54 days with only a hatchet as well as survive his parents’ divorce. In Brian’s Hunt, Brian returns to the wilderness because civilization is too much for him. As he seeks out his old Cree friends, he senses something is wrong which turns out to be a bear who preys on humans.
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BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.