Gary Paulsen

Fifteen-year-old Wil discovers himself and the wonders of nature when he leaves home to live on an island in northern Wisconsin.

Fourteen-year-old John Barron is asked, like his father and grandfather before him, to spend the summer taking care of their sheep in the haymeadow. Six thousand sheep. John will be alone, except for two horses, four dogs, and all those sheep.
John doesn't feel up to the task, but he hopes that if he can accomplish it, he will finally please his father. But John finds that the adage "things just to sheep" is true when the river floods,...

A fourteen-year-old boy who has been neglected by irresponsible parents spends a wonderful summer on a farm where his grandmother cooks for two elderly brothers.

A canoe ride on a northern lake during a summer day reveals the quiet beauty and wonder of nature in and around the peaceful water.

For a 16-year-old boy out in the world alone for the first time, every day’s an education in the hard work and boredom of migrant labor; every day teaches him something more about friendship, or hunger, or profanity, or lust—always lust. He learns how a poker game, or hitching a ride, can turn deadly. He discovers the secret sadness and generosity to be found on a lonely farm in the middle of nowhere. Then he joins up with a carnival and becomes...

Since his father died, Daniel Martin looks forward to summers with his uncle in the mountains. They have a great time practicing outdoor survival skills. But this summer his mother is sending him to Camp Eagle Nest. When he boards the camp van, Daniel's heart sinks. Three boys from school-who always tease him-are going to camp, too. Soon the driver gets lost. As the van is crossing a rickety bridge, the wooden planks break, plunging the van into the...

Thirteen-year-old Jesse Rodriguez has learned everything he needs to know about skydiving by working at the small airport near his home. As soon as he turns sixteen, he'll make his first jump. His new friend, Robin, is training to skydive, even though she really prefers photography to parachutes. One day, while visiting Jesse at the airstrip, she unintentionally takes some pictures of several drug dealers disembarking from a small plane. Suddenly,...

As the Civil War rages around the plantation where Sarny lives, she hears of other slaves running away. They are following the sparkling drinking gourd in the northern sky to freedom. She longs to go wherever she wants and to be allowed to read books, just like the freed slaves. But she has a young son and daughter to look after. When the master sells her children to a stranger, Sarny waits for an opportunity to sneak away to search for them. Her...