Books Will Save Your Life. Literally.

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When I was around nine years old, I somehow got it in me to devour every Gary Paulsen novel that I could get my little hands on. Each one was a flurry of snow dogs and wolves and canoes and starvation and just fighting alone against the elements in general. I loved them for the same reason I scared myself senseless watching Alive! before going on a plane ride: part of the entertainment value was that, as incredible and far-removed as the stories were from my own life, they are just true and real enough to prompt that little voice in your head that says “one misstep, and this could be you.”

Of course, the chances of surviving a charter plane crash and scavenging in brutal mountainous conditions for weeks on end are extremely slim, but no one ever said anything about situations slightly less extreme. Besides, it has to happen to someone or such stories would never be told, right? When it happened to 12-year-old Michael Auberry this past week, it was just a good thing he’d done his homework.

A team of rescuers found Michael Auberry, the 12-year-old Boy Scout who had been missing in the rugged wilderness of western North Carolina for four days, alive and well, if a bit shaken and dehydrated.

According to his father, Kent Auberry, a key to the boy's survival might have been a book Michael spent a few weeks reading several years ago: Hatchet, a realistic novel by Paulsen that has attained the status of a young adult classic since its publication in 1988.

Hatchet tells the story of 13-year-old Brian Robeson, who survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness only to have to fend for himself for 54 days. Brian lives by using patience, resisting panic and approaching the problem of survival one challenge at a time.

In case you’ve never read it, Hatchet is about this kid named Brian who’s flying in a little charter plane to visit his dad in Canada when the pilot keels over and dies at the controls. The plane crashes in a lake the middle of the wilderness, and Brian, having swum to relative safety, has to live by his wits, windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present. By staying calm and contemplative, learning quickly to hunt and fish, finding fresh water, and building a shelter, the boy survives for 54 days before being rescued. 54 days is a long time, but the book is extreme and fiction. In real life, the four days that Michael Auberry was lost were long enough for potential tragedy.

Gary Paulsen was reached for comment, and I was pleased to find out that he’s keeping it real by living amongst the Siberian Huskies in the middle of Alaskan tundra, instead of a posh beach house somewhere.

For his part, Paulsen is simply thrilled. Reached at his home in the Alaskan bush yesterday, he sounded both startled and grateful.

"I live in the middle of nowhere," he said with a laugh, "where it's awfully quiet, and all of a sudden my phone's ringing off the hook. This is such a surprise.

"I give the boy -- it's Michael, right? -- all the credit. I've written about the 'rule of threes.' You can survive three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without air. He did it right. He didn't panic. He found water somewhere. I'm so glad."

As of yesterday, no one knew what part Michael's knowledge of Hatchet played in the rescue, but he must have applied principles Paulsen made certain to highlight in the book. "If you read it," the author said, "it starts off with [the main character] panicking, then overcoming that. It's crucial to remain calm, to apply what you know simply and rationally."

Now every preteen boy reading Pokemon manga feels like a total sucker. +5 ice resistance in the Viridian Forest Battledome only goes so far when you’re at half-health and it’s freezing outside and you can’t just press reset.



(Doff o' the Cap to Media Bistro's Galleycat )

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