Kids into books: Hatchet - The Truth

Author: Gary Paulsen

Age: 10+ years

Illustrator: Mark Taylor

Publisher: Macmillan, $14.95

But the smell of methane was very strong and the grey look was very bad and as I reached for him to put him on his back, he jolted as if hit by electricity, stiffened in the kitchen chair and fell sideways to the floor. His eyes looked into mine. Directly into my eyes.

"Call the hospital and tell them to bring the chopper now," I said, and knelt to help him, but he was hit with another jolt that stiffened him and his eyes opened wide and the smell grew much stronger and I knew he was gone. There was, of course, hope - there is always hope. Even when I was called to car accidents and saw children I knew were dead, I would keep working on them because I could not bring myself to accept their death - the hope would not allow it - and I worked on this man now, though the smell came up and the skin grew cold. I kept at the CPR because the woman kept giving me the Look and I could not give up hope. But minutes passed and then half an hour before I heard the sound of the rotors - which was very good time, though much too late for this man - and I kept working on him though I knew he was dead and I had seen him die, seen him move from his life into his death, and though I had seen death many times before, I had not seen it in this way. Not in the way his eyes had looked into mine while the life left him.