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Explore the World of Gary Paulsen

Canoe Days Opening this book is like sitting down in a canoe, taking up a paddle, and gliding out into the summer beauty of a hidden lake. In this picture book that is as refreshing and inviting as a perfect canoe day, a fawn peeks out from the trees as ducklings fan out behind their mother. Butterflies pause and fish laze beneath the lily pads. Ruth Wright Paulsen's sunlit paintings and Gary Paulsen's poetic text capture all the peace and pleasure of a day when water and sky are one. Trade Paperback • Buy this book
The Beet Fields Read an excerpt! 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 a grunt, running a ride and shilling for the geek show. He's living the hard carny life and beginning to see the world through carny eyes. He's tough. Cynical. By the end of the summer he's pretty sure he knows it all. Until he meets Ruby. Paperback • Buy this book
The White Fox Chronicles Read an excerpt! The year is 2057. Endless wars have torn the USA apart and enslaved Americans to the CCR, the Confederation of Consolidated Republics. Growing up in the wasteland of war has made 14-year-old Cody Pierce wise in survival skills, and now he's the White Fox, rebel leader of the children's barracks in a CCR prison camp. Once he escapes, life with the underground teaches him new skills in weaponry and strategy as he plays cat-and-mouse with the CCR. Every day brings him closer to capture, as well as to his goal: to return and liberate the children he left behind. Paperback • Buy this book
The Transall Saga Read an excerpt! Mark's solo camping trip to the desert begins as any other camping trip, until a mysterious beam of light appears. The trip turns into a terrifying and thrilling adventure when the light beam transports Mark into another time, and what appears to be another planet! Although he is searching for his way back to earth, in the meantime he is forced to make a life in this unknown world. He meets primitive tribes and shares the joy of human bonds, but this end of isolation in the new world also brings war and a struggle for power. Ages 12 up • Paperback • Buy this book
Dogteam On a moonlit winter night, a team of dogs pulls a sled, taking the narrator and readers on a wondrous ride through the snow, into and out of the woods. It is a ride you'll wish would never end. Through this exquisite prose poem, Gary Paulsen shares the joy, the beauty, and the grandeur of the outdoors. With his joyous text and Ruth Wright Paulsen's exuberant and expressive illustrations, Dogteam is a celebration of nature, a dance that invites everyone to join in. Ages 12 up • Trade Paperback • Buy this book
A Christmas Sonata A young boy and his mother spend Christmas 1943 with relatives in northern Minnesota while his father is fighting in the war in Europe. They take a long journey by train to a snowy land of vast frozen lakes, deep and sparkling cold, and the most magical Christmas tree the boy has ever seen. He knows this will be the last Christmas he will spend with his cousin, who is dying. The boy's uncle overhears the two cousins say there is no Santa Claus, and in a grand gesture that is nothing short of a Christmas miracle, he restores the children's faith in the spirit of the season. This handsome keepsake edition is destined to become a family treasure that will be shared year after year. Complete with a special foreword by Newbery Award-winning author Gary Paulsen, this touching story is sure to capture the hearts of all readers. Ages 12 up • Trade Paperback • Buy this book
The Monument It all begins when Rocky follows Mick Strum around town while he sketches its people, animals and graveyard. Mick has been commissioned by Rocky's Kansas town to create a memorial to their war dead. As Rocky learns to respect Mick and his talents, he helps her to develop her own artistic sensibilities.It all begins when Rocky follows Mick Strum around town while he sketches its people, animals and graveyard. Mick has been commissioned by Rocky's Kansas town to create a memorial to their war dead. But the townspeople see things in Mick's drawings that they don't want to know or accept about themselves. Can Mick help them accept one monument that will be meaningful to everyone? Ages 12 up • Trade Paperback • Buy this book
The Haymeadow 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, coyotes attack, and one dog's feet get cut. Through it all he must rely on his own resourcefulness, ingenuity, and talents to survive this summer in the haymeadow. Ages 10 up • Trade Paperback • Buy this book
The Night the White Deer Died An Indian brave stands poised to shoot a white deer drinking from a pool of water in the moonlight. It is only a dream--a recurring nightmare that haunts fifteen-year-old Janet Carson--but it is a dream that will change her forever. Janet, one of the few Anglo teens in the New Mexico art colony where she lives with her mother, feels isolated and alone. For some reason she is drawn to Billy Honcho, an old alcoholic Indian who begs some money from her. As they get to know each other, the meaning of Janet's dream begins to become clear to her, and Billy becomes the brave in her dreams. Ages 12 up • Paperback • Buy this book
Canyons Two boys, separated by the canyons of time and two vastly different cultures, face the challenges by which they become men. Coyote Runs, an Apache boy, takes part in his first raid--the one that will usher him into manhood. He is to be a man for but a short time... More than a hundred years later, while camping near Dog Canyon, fifteen-year-old Brennan Cole becomes obsessed with a skull that he finds, pierced by a bullet. He learns that it was the skull of an Apache boy executed by soldiers in 1864. A mystical link joins Brennan and Coyote Runs, and Brennan knows that neither boy will find any peace until Coyote Runs' skull is retumed to an ancient sacred place. In a grueling run through the canyon to retum the skull, Brennan faces the challenge of his life. Ages 12 up • Paperback • Buy this book