Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author's book Hatchet, this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

After having survived alone in the wilderness, Brian finds that he can no longer live in the city but must return to the place where he really belongs.

"[In this biography, author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood.] If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen, he may never have become a reader. And without his desperate teenage enlistment in the Army,...