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THE CRASH
Brian Robeson, a 13 year-old from New York City, boards a plan headed from Hampton, New York to the Canadian north woods to visit his father. The pilot had a heart attack and died. The plane crashed and Brian was stranded in the Canadian woods. -
SHELTER
After the crash, Brian makes a shelter for cover and protection. He makes it out of wood, twigs, and vines he finds in the woods. -
GUT CHERRIES
Brian is hungry and doesn't quite know where to find food. He finds some berries in the woods. The berries make him sick; he pukes and has diarrhea. -
THE PORCUPINE
During the night, a porcupine comes into Brian's shelter. Brian throws his hatchet at it, but misses and sparks come out of the rock that the hatchet hits. The Porcupine shoots its quills into Brian's leg causing him severe pain. -
THE FIRE
In his sleep, Brian dreams of his friend Terry showing him a fire. When he wakes up, he realizes he has to make a fire to keep warm and to cook food, and keep the bugs away. He uses the hatchet to make fire and uses wood he gathered to keep the fire going. -
TURTLE EGGS
The morning after creating fire, he finds 17 turtle eggs in the sand outside his shelter. The thought of eating raw eggs makes him shiver, his hunger takes over. The turtle eggshells are very leathery and tough. Eating the eggs re-awakens his deep hunger, and he wants to finish them but doesn't because he will be without eggs and eggs are food. He vows that he will save them and eat one per day. -
MISSED PLANE
A plane flies overhead, giving Brian hope that the searchers have come for him. He gestures and yells at the top of his lungs, but the plane flies past him and does not see him. Brian is devastated and feels hopeless. He begins to think he will never see his family and friends again. -
THE CUTTING
Brian even tries to commit suicide by cutting himself with his hatchet. He survives and becomes determined to never, ever let death tempt him again, and in that moment Brian transforms himself into the "new Brian." -
FIRST FEAST DAY
Brian makes a spear to kill fish. He finally figures out how to catch the many fish in the lake when he realizes he must account for the refraction of light underwater and adjust his aim. On that first day that he catches fish, he feasts on them and is satisfied with the wealth of food and feels hopeful. -
THE FOOLBIRD
While searching for wood, Brian almost steps on a bird and it flies up in a flurry of feathers. It occurs to Brian to try to catch these birds, slightly smaller than chickens, and he calls them "foolbirds." He makes a spear out of wood to kill the bird. He had a difficult time catching them with his bow and arrow. The birds would fly away at the last second, and were difficult to spot. He decided to use the spear which was more effective. -
THE SKUNK
A skunk goes over to the spot in the sand where the turtle has laid its eggs. Brian yells at the skunk and the skunk sprays him. Brian is blinded for nearly two hours as a result of the spray,. Brian runs into the lake to wash himself. The skunk has also eaten the eggs he had stored on the shore. Brian learned two lessons from this incident: make a sturdy shelter and put food in a protected place. -
THE WOLF
While Brian searches for foolbirds, his instincts tell him that something is lurking nearby. At that moment he spots a big wolf, which then walks up the hill and away from Brian, followed by three more wolvess. -
THE BEAR
While gathering raspberries he encounters a bear which sniffs him and looks him over. The bear leaves and does not attack him. -
THE MOOSE
While washing his hands in the lake, Brian senses something and turns around just in time to face a huge moose. The moose attacks him, throwing him into the water, thrashing him around, and badly hurting his ribs and his shoulder -
THE TORNADO
After the mosse attack, Brian is in enormous pain and goes to sleep. A roar awakens Brian in the middle of the night. Suddenly, a tornado pounds down on him, slamming him on the side of the shelter. The tornado leaves as quickly as it had arrived. Brian was left out in the open. His shelter and fire were destroyed, Without the protection of the fire, mosquitoes find him once again and he lies sleepless for the remainder of the night, -
THE RAFT
It occurs to Brian that the survivial pack may still be in the plane so he tries to figure out how to get to it since the plane is in the lake. He decides the best way would be to build a raft. -
The Dive Into Crashed Plane
Brian was frustrated by how difficult it was to get inside of the plane. He struck it with his fist and the aluminum covering opens. Using the hatchet to cut through the rest of the sections, Brian hacks away but drops the hatchet and it falls to the bottom of the lake. After a few tries, Brian picks the hatchet up from the bottom, having barely enough air in his lungs to return to the surface. He continues to cut into the plane and then swims down into it to get the survival pack. -
THE RESCUE
Brian prepares to feast on the food he found in the crashed plane when he hears the sound of an engine above him. The plane flies low and lands on the lake. The pilot gets out and says to Brian that he had heard the transmitter signal. The pilot slowly makes the connection that the searchers he had heard about were looking for a boy. Dumbfounded and initially unable to comprehend the situation, Brian simply says, "My name is Brian Robeson…. Would you like something to eat", -
THE SURVIVAL PACK
The survival pack had many useful items, including a sleeping bag, a foam sleeping pad, a cookset, matches, lighters, a knife, a compass, a first-aid kit, a cap, a fishing kit, and a survivor rifle which Brian dislikes as he feels it separates him from the natural environment that he got used to. Although his daily life would become much easier with the use of a rifle, and with many of the tools in the kit, he feels attached to his old tools and ways of doing things -
THE SECRET
"The Secret" was with Brian from the beginning of the book until the end of the book. The secret was his Mom had an affair with another man. Brian never told his father the secret.
