Brian's Winter: Chapters 1–3

by Gary Paulsen
This sequel to Hatchet and The River imagines that 13-year-old Brian Robeson wasn't rescued the summer after he survived a plane crash and had to survive the winter in the Canadian wilderness on his own.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–8, Chapter 9–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. glut
    overeat or eat immodestly
    The results were nearly as bad as when he’d glutted on the gut cherries when he first landed.
  2. hummock
    a small natural mound
    Before he was away from the camp he stopped and shot several times into a dirt hummock.
  3. relish
    derive or receive pleasure from
    Just stopping to sit and think was a rare thing. At first he didn’t like it much because it brought memories and made him homesick, made him miss his mother and father and other life. But now he relished the time, and he spent it this day doing something he called “visiting.”
  4. elude
    escape, either physically or mentally
    He snuggled down into the bag and felt glad for its warmth, and the thought that this was the first time he’d felt glad for heat this season — that it was growing colder — somehow eluded him.
  5. solitary
    single and isolated from others
    Several times he had seen a solitary wolf — a large male that came near the camp and studied the boy.
  6. goodly
    large in size, amount, or degree
    He had seen them several times while picking berries, raking the bushes with their teeth to pull the fruit off — and a goodly number of leaves as well, which they spit out before swallowing the berries — and, as with the wolves, they seemed to get along with him.
  7. clinical
    detached or unemotional
    No, he thought with a clinical logic that surprised him — I am looking at the very large rear end of a very large bear.
  8. sheepishly
    in a manner showing embarrassment or shame
    He was not certain what he expected. Perhaps that the bear would turn and realize its mistake and then sheepishly trundle away.
  9. adversary
    someone who offers opposition
    But in reality, the bear was not his primary adversary.
  10. sod
    surface layer of ground containing a mat of grass and roots
    He could pack it with dead leaves or even cut strips of sod with the hatchet to fill it in. And make an insulated door by stuffing two woven frames full of leaves.
  11. bramble
    any of various rough thorny shrubs or vines
    Rabbits had hidden there from predators because they could escape into the thick brambles easily.
  12. reflexive
    without volition or conscious control
    Incredible, he thought. If I lived to be a hundred and tried it a thousand more times I would never be able to do it again. Just a clean reflexive shot.
Created on Tue May 12 11:10:22 EDT 2020 (updated Mon Jul 28 17:26:48 EDT 2025)

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