I almost missed reading books by Gary Paulsen. His books came out well after I would have been interested in reading his kind of adventure stories, and my children had interests in other themes and genres. Fortunately there was a teacher or two who required my children (and their classmates) to read Hatchet - and I often tried to read what they were reading (if I wasn't already familiar with the book) so that we could talk about.

I enjoyed it and quickly read many of his other books. Which of course brings me now to this, Paulsen's narrative autobiography.

This is one of the most unusual biographies I've ever read. It does not read like a biography. It does not read like a memoir. This reads exactly like one of Paulsen's adventure tales. This means a couple of different things.

First, this means that the book will be easily read and devoured and enjoyed by the same audience that reads Paulsen's novels This younger audience is already familiar with how he lays out a plot and narrates a story. He spends most of his time here relating about his early years - the same age as Brian from Hatchet or Russel from Dogsong.

The second thing this means is that Paulsen had an extraordinary childhood. The subtitle, "Surviving a Lost Childhood," isn't just hype to make the book sound more interesting.

Before he was even school age, Gary was witness to the horrors of war. He lived in Manilla where his military father was stationed. His father was mostly absent - which was probably a good thing. When he was home, Gary's parents were abusive alcoholics - worse together than separate. He learns at this time to fend for himself and to not trust adults.

He is shipped off to live with and aunt and uncle - the first time he's ever shown any warmth or caring - and it is here, through the gruff manner of his uncle that he learns how to venture safely outside in the wilderness.

But just as he is learning to trust in his family foster parents, his mother and father move back to the United States and want him 'home.' A young child doesn't have much say in this, and most would assume that being with his real mother and father is best for him.

Not much has changed in their behavior and when he's not stuck living in the corner of a cold basement, he is living outside, sleeping under the stars.

Another positive, memorable moment in his early life is when he discovered the public library and the kind librarian (whom at first he didn't trust because, like all adults, she must have had a secret agenda) who exposes him to the many worlds found in books, and encourages him to write down his own thoughts (when he tells her all the inaccuracies in the books he's read).

It's a powerful autobiography, and more than just a little depressing. Paulsen saw, and experienced, more terrible things before he was a teen than most people will in a lifetime.

This will definitely appeal to anyone who's read a Gary Paulsen book, and it might very well reach a new audience who will come to discover some of his classic books because of this biography.

Looking for a good book? Gone to the Woods, Gary Paulsen's autobiography is quite possibly more adventurous and frightening, more a tale of survival, than his classic children's books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells about some of the important experiences that influenced Gary Paulsen's writing life. There are a number of harrowing and heartbreaking experiences. Each of these experiences formed Paulsen's life as a writer and as a person. This is a compelling tell and will be interesting to many readers.

I really enjoyed reading about Gary Paulsen's childhood from about age 5 to his 20's. It was an amazing life of surviving day-to-day. I saw Mr. Paulsen at a book signing many years ago and I remembered he said that the library, really the librarian saved him. It really stuck with me back then. I'm not sure if I was already volunteering in my own children's library back then or if I was in grad school getting my master's degree in Library and Information Science. I have loved reading his books for a long time and especially love sharing his books with students. Love hearing that a student loved reading "Hatchet" for the first time and that book was the first book they ever finished let alone enjoyed and asked for another book by him. When I tell them there is a sequel to "Hatchet", I love to see their eyes light up and be able to continue the journey. Gary Paulsen did that for many, many young readers. Taught them to love reading.

I was hoping to read more about how he started writing books for children and teens. He does share how he started writing but I was hungry for more information. I felt like the ending was a huge cliffhanger for me. I wanted to read more about his adult life. Still worth reading like all of his books. A must-have for any library!

Well respected writer Gary Paulsen has created a autobiographical masterpiece of his childhood. Modern readers get the chance to travel back to time period in history that is fresh and new to them. Full of perseverance, reality, and adventure. Fans of Paulsen and kids growing into themselves will appreciate this story!

If you have been a child or teacher in the last 35 years you have probably been exposed to Gary Paulsen’s young adult tale of survival, Hatchet. The gritty realism and page-turning intensity of that book has kept it in print and spawned a whole genre. Gone to the Woods, the story behind the author, is another tale of gritty realism. It begins when “The Boy” as he describes himself, is 5 years and is put on a train in New York City during wartime to spend the summer working on a farm with his grandparents in Minnesota. Life is hard but it was the beginning of Paulsen’s love affair with Nature. This interlude is wonderful as we see the beginning of a relationship of trust and love between the boy and his grandparents. The writing is captivating. We learn how to catch and gut a fish, how to plow a field and how to face down a flock of angry geese. However this period was over too soon, and he is removed without warning by his mother and returned to the nightmare of living with abusive alcoholic parents. .
What might destroy a weaker spirit only makes The Boy stronger, but it is a strength built on solitude and suspicion. As a parent and teacher, my heart ached for this child and his hardscrabble life, but as a librarian I couldn’t help but make a connection with the role of the library in turning his life in a new direction. It is a testament to the power of books, and everyone reading this story will make that same connection.
Is this a true story? In checking on Wikipedia, it appears there are some discrepancies in the chronology here and the biography presented in the reference source, but I wouldn’t let that spoil your enjoyment of this book. It is a story of resiliency and character that might inspire a young person and certainly entertained this old one.

With thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group - Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for an early copy in return for an honest review.

It was absolutely fascinating to learn about the life of Gary Paulsen, and what a life he's had. His childhood was turbulent and filled with many challenges. As I read you could see how he drew so much on his own life experiences while writing books like Hatchet. I was particularly drawn to his experiences with the library and the librarian. It was a beautiful reminder how much of a difference one person can make in the life of a child.

For parents and educators - Although this is a middle grades book, I probably wouldn't recommend it for younger MG readers due to the nature of the content. Although true, some may be more than an 8 or 9-year old is ready to read.

Paulsen's memoir is a true testament to his writing that is published for kids everywhere. Paulsen shows life's beautify and it's pain simultaneously. He does not shy away from devastation in any form - we get to see it through his lense and look and analyze and realize there is a tenderness that comes out of it. There are happy, funny, sad, touching moments in the biography. Students today can learn from him and his appreciation for nature as in today's society we seem to be so out of touch with where we are, what we are surrounded by, and what we came from. I think there are moments and parts to pull out to read to students, but the length is LONG for middle grade readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful memoir. Now I understand how Gary Paulsen's traumatic upbringing gave him so much knowledge about wilderness survival and nature. His resilience in hard times (especially as a youth) was impressive. I'm sure many of today's youth can relate on some level.. I loved reading about his experiences with the library and the librarian. It was endearing that she had such a positive influence on his life. I was surprised that the book skipped from his Army days to age 80. It left me wanting to know so much more about his life and his writings.

This is the story of a little boy who was sent from his barroom mom in Chicago to his kin in north woods at the age of five. He knew immediately he had a love of the woods and that was helped by Sig who showed him the way of the woods, I mean really showed him the way woods the way that lives in you. In his teens, thanks to a librarian, he became a voracious reader and later found his calling as a story teller one that has helped many of children looking for adventure and risk to take up reading as well after reading Hatchet, yes reader, this is the story of our beloved Gary Paulsen's life.

This is a awesome memoir featuring the wonderful author Gary Paulsen. This book is action packed with adventures from the minute he leaves Chicago until the end of the book. What he sees and lives through has given him a unique view of the world and has shaped his great story telling into books we all clamor for. There is not much I can say but this is really good, don't miss out.

This will appear on my blog Jan 12th.

In "Gone to the Woods", Gary Paulsen describes his childhood and adolescence, giving the reader insight into the events that influenced his writing. Spending time on a farm and out in nature while escaping his alcoholic parents, Paulsen uses these situations as jumping off points for novels like "Hatchet" and "Dogsong". There is some mature content when dealing with World War II, his mother's promiscuity, and his survival during his teen years, however teens who enjoyed Paulsen's other works may enjoy learning more about the author and his background, which is timeless and relatable.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC.

I love Gary Paulsen so much.
I love his writing, I love hearing him speak... he's the real deal. Paulsen manages to simultaneously show life's pain and its beauty, the loss and the wonder, the violence and the grace. He does not shy away from devastation. He makes us look at it, and then he shows the tender sweetness that can come out of it, that lives side by side with it. What a beautiful, powerful idea, one we can all remember in these challenging times.

This young adult memoir has funny, sad, touching moments, and the writing is exquisite. I want to live inside that warm lit library with Paulsen. I want to discover and marvel at and appreciate nature with him. I want to stand up and forgive and keep learning with him.

Can't wait to share this with students.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Gary Paulsen has written his memoir for young readers. Paulsen had a very rough childhood. When he was 5 years old, he was living in Chicago with his mother (dad was serving in the Pacific during WWII) and mostly neglected. His grandmother convinced his mother to send him to live on one of the family farms. So his mother put him on a train to Minnesota, by himself, with a small cardboard suitcase and some money in his pocket – five years old! He lived with his aunt and uncle for a time and that is where his love for the woods grew. His uncle taught him some basic survival skills and young Gary helped out on the farm. After a time, his mother came to get him – they were going to the Philippines to live with his father. He is now seven years old. The war had just ended but there was still some fighting going on. WARNING: Paulsen describes some of what he had seen, on the ship and on the army base, in graphic detail. Later, the family comes back stateside to North Dakota, where teenage Gary is really left to fend for himself. He finds refuge from the brutal northern winter in the local library. He is hesitant at first but the kind librarian gets him a library card and hands him a book. Not being the best student, it takes him almost the whole loan period to read it but that sparked something in young Gary to read and write about his experiences.
I was excited to see this memoir – I truly enjoyed reading, and later recommending, the Brian series (Hatchet, etc.). While I don’t generally read a lot of nonfiction, this one pulled me in. It was a little strange how he referred to himself in third person as "the boy." But you can see where his ideas for Hatchet came from. While the publisher puts the recommended ages as 8-12 years old, I would hesitate to recommend this to some younger readers because of some of the graphic content mentioned earlier. I would definitely recommend it for grades 6 and up.
#GoneToTheWoods #GaryPaulsen #NetGalley

Gone to the Woods
Surviving a Lost Childhood
by Gary Paulsen
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Children's Nonfiction | Middle Grade
Pub Date 12 Jan 2021 | Archive Date 11 Jan 2021

This is a beautiful book. We have many patrons who are Gary Paulsen fans and I think they would appreciate this book. Thanks to Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC. I will recommend it.
Mature subject detail; might be better for upper middle grade.

5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a beautiful little book. I loved learning about the reasons behind why Gary Paulsen writes so often about nature and the wilderness and how he learned the things he came to know. I didn’t realize he had such a chaotic and traumatic upbringing. There was also a lovely section on libraries and a librarian, which I adored and nearly brought me to tears. I wanted more - I wish the book was a bit longer!

I loved reading Gary Paulsen's books as a kid. I'm glad that "Gone to the Woods" keeps up with its priors.

As a school librarian, I knew I could "hook" most of the boys and some of the girls with a Gary Paulsen book. This will be a wonderful addition to a school library and could be used as part of a literature unit.
By the age of five, Gary was living in Chicago with his mother, who was more interested in having a good time than she was in caring for a child. His father was serving in World War II. No one was caring for him, and yet he survived. His grandmother convinced his mother to send Gary to live with her sister in northern Minnesota, and so, at the age of five, he was put on a train with a small suitcase and five dollars and shipped off. “She dropped him off at the train station to make the four-hundred-mile run to Minneapolis to connect to a different, slower north-woods train that would take him north another four hundred or so miles to International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border, where he would be met by a total stranger to take him the final rough distance to the first farm his grandmother had selected. A five-year-old child. Completely and totally alone.”
The farm taught him more about self sufficiency, but he had an aunt and uncle to teach him and the food was plentiful. He learned how to work with nature and be content in the solace of nature. This time did not last as he and his mother re-united with his father in Manila. More neglect occurred. He saw things there that no child should ever have to live through. Upon returning to Minneapolis, he learned to provide for himself. He attended school as little as possible, worked a lot of odd jobs, scrounged for coins at the bar where he also received the occasional meal. He ran away numerous times, was caught and returned home.
During a bitter cold spell, he took refuge in a library. It was warm and he found corners where he could hide, away from the loud-bad kids. It was there a librarian befriended him, slowly winning his trust. When he realized he could have a library card for no money, that he could take a book and read it and return it, and get another book, his world started to change. The same sense of refuge came in the library as it came in the woods. She also taught him to write and "he carried the notebook with a blue cover and a yellow pencil and wrote all he saw and did and could remember. Always for the librarian with the warm smile. Who first showed him how to read the whole book.”
In the eleventh grade he was selected by the state to attend a vocational school where he learned a trade. Something useful and he loved it. What he learned there served him well for many years. His years in the Army showed him he wanted more out of life and he set out to achieve more.
Paulsen has been a positive influence on countless numbers of students, as he has spent his life writing adventure stories. And it all started because a librarian cared enough to see a child in need.

A beautifully written memoir from a well-known author giving us insight to the difficulties of his early life and how he was saved by nature, the woods and the outdoors.

Melancholy is the word that comes to mind as I sit here reflecting on Gary Paulsen’s memoir Gone to the Woods. How a child can live through abandonment, parental alcoholism, starvation, and neglect and come out still standing on the other side is an amazing feat. Even though his parents were… well, terrible, he met people along his young life that showed him love and encouragement. Edy and Sig, Ruben the ship steward, and his town librarian are just a few who showed him kindness and support.

Because of some of the themes in this book, I feel like it should be read by eighth grade students and above. It also would be a fabulous book club book for high school students or even adults.

Thanks to #netgalley #garypaulsen for the advance copy of Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood

3.5 stars
During my first semester of library school, the first young adult book I read was Hatchet. This began a lasting fascination with action adventure and survival fiction. And Hatchet remains a steadfast, go to recommendation I give to any reluctant reader. Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood is a middle grade memoir that provides the reader with seminal moments that marked Paulsen’s uneasy childhood. From the beginning his early life was marked by neglect and caustic parenting. At the age of five, his grandmother convinced his mother to send Gary to live with her sister far north in the woods. His mother happily accepted the notion and with only a small suitcase and five dollars in his pocket, puts Gary aboard a train. “She dropped him off at the train station to make the four-hundred-mile run to Minneapolis to connect to a different, slower north-woods train that would take him north another four hundred or so miles to International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border, where he would be met by a total stranger to take him the final rough distance to the first farm his grandmother had selected. A five-year-old child. Completely and totally alone.”

At the age of 5, Paulsen was already accustomed to and mostly proficient at fending for himself. The farm, as it turns out has more lessons to be learned about self sufficiency, but administered with a kinder and more gentle hand. It is with his aunt and uncle that Gary develops his first sense of safety, security, and belonging. And he discovers the serenity, solace, and enchantment of the natural world, a connection that would direct him and provide respite throughout his life. Sadly, his time on the farm was a brief ellipsis in his life. But it did provide him with a reference for everything that came before and after. Paulsen goes on to recount a horrific stint in Manila, just at the tail end of World War II, reunited with his absentee military father. His parents are abusive, neglectful, alcoholics and, together, an explosive combination. This, coupled with the every day atrocities and horrors of a war torn country, heightens his survival skills but also creates in him a great distrust of most adults. Out of sheer necessity, he is able to compartmentalize much of the trauma he experiences and continues with heartbreaking pluck and fortitude. “And after that, a part of him, a part of his spirit, was calloused and toughened. Like leather. And he would not and could not be young again. Ever.” At some point the family returns to the states and settles in a small town. His parents become an ugly footnote from the this point on. Paulsen lives in a decrepit corner of the basement in their apartment building, or in the woods at the edge of town when the weather is cooperative, keeping out sight, keeping to himself, providing for himself working odd jobs. He’s in and out school, a place that he has little use for. “...not, he thought, that school mattered for him. It worked for others. Didn’t work for him. Teachers said things he was supposed to hear and handed him work to study, but he didn’t hear or couldn’t study, because he had to think about other things... He never thought about school except to know it was a nightmare walking.”

Paulsen runs away several times finding work on farms and ranches, once in a carnival, but is always found out and returned home despite the fact that his parents often don’t even realize he’s been gone nor want him around. He finds literal refuge in the library. “Place smelled like wood and what? Smelled like … books. Official-looking wood-book-smelling quiet place that made you relax the minute you came in the door. That’s what made it feel safe. An official government place where nobody would mess with you. A safe place where none of the loud-hard kids would come...It happened that way. Somehow, without thinking, the library became part of what he was, what he did. A safe place. Like the woods.” But it was more than the safety of the building that beckoned him. “It was the library and the librarian.”

At the age of thirteen, Paulsen is befriended by the librarian who wins him over wary encounters and slow and cautious conversations in which he feels heard and seen for the first time. “The library was how and where and when he came to learn things.” This relationship proves to be momentous turning point in Paulsen’s development. The librarian not only unlocks the magic and utility of reading for him, but also encourages him to write. “He wrote for the librarian with the warm smile. Even after she was gone and he was living in new places, living new ways, even then he carried the notebook with a blue cover and a yellow pencil and wrote all he saw and did and could remember. Always for the librarian with the warm smile. Who first showed him how to read the whole book.” As a librarian, this is the Mecca. What we know and believe to be our holy grail.
The remainder of his teen years are spent in various aimless pursuits, including a program at a vocational school.

“When he was about to flunk out of the eleventh grade, the state stepped in and he was passed to twelfth grade with the “proviso” (their word, not his) that he was to pay attention and really try to learn a vocation as a television repair man and not be a ‘burden to society.’” Again, this proves to a pivotal moment and one that would shape his prospects for many years. “Pure magic. And he loved it. Ate it with a spoon, ravenous to know more and more, to figure out how it all worked and to really know everything there was to learn about this new thing. And although he did not even sense it at the time, he would find later that the knowledge, the technical base of the knowledge, would affect him profoundly and for the rest of his life.” Paulsen enlists in the army after graduation. His experience, marksmanship, and technical intelligence all provided a career pathway he might otherwise never imagined while also showing him he wanted a big life with many adventures not a jaded one filled with regrets or longing.

The book ends a bit abruptly. Readers who see it through will marvel at his resilience and perseverance. It’s simply amazing that almost from his inception, he was a survivalist, intent on winning with the impossible hand he was dealt. He’s plucky, gritty, and determined. I think it could be a good book for guided discussion and possibly, a good read aloud. I’m not sure it will find a lot of young readership on its own. The writing is staccato, punctuated by short, almost stream of conscious sentences. But taken as a whole, you’ll marvel at his tenacity.

I was very disappointed by this book. While I understand the book was written with to include experiences of the author's life it is totally inappropriate for students in his usual target audience. The swearing and references to his mothers "occupation" make this book for Young Adults and above not for the age group that typically would read his books. I love Gary Paulsen's writing style but I won't be getting this book for my school library.