Gary Paulsen Books

This novel is about a regular, old Pueblo Indian brave, and a young fifteen year old girl, who fall in love. The brave's name is Billy Honcho, and the girl's name is Janet. Janet lives in Tres Pinos, New Mexico. She starts to find that she likes Billy Honcho. She follows him around the city. Then she realizes she loves him. She buys him wine and yet, as he starts to sober up, she realizes the sober person is the one she likes. Her mother notices that the old brave starts to clean himself up. Janet's mother thinks that they're courting...and she is not pleased. Janet starts to have a recurring dream that Billy Honcho is standing next to a pond with his bow and arrow raised to his cheek. He fires, as this pure white doe falls into a crystal clear pond. Then the dream freezes in time. Inspite of these very specific details, I did not like this book very much. I thought it had no action or anything exciting. Nothing popped out. The only good thing about the book is that it was thankfully short

Janet and her mother live in Tres Pinos, New Mexico. Janet throughout the story, lives an interior world of loneliness and confusion. Her mother always worked and she didn't get along with the girls in town. The weird thing about this girl was that almost every night she had a dream, where an indian is shooting a deer with his arrow, but she never gets to see the Indian's face nor the deer being killed. Janet meets an old Indian, who drank wine all day long. His name was Billy Honcho and lived in the Indian Pueblo. The few times Janet was with him, she felt comfortable and thought he was interesting. Se then realized she wasn't dreaming anymore. Janet started to love him and wanted to keep seen him, until one night Billy appears in her courtyard on a horse...My best part of the book was when Janet meets Billy. The mood of the story changes since the feelings of loneliness aren't mentioned anymore. Instead of loneliness the author expresses anxiety from Janet to see Billy again. The story shows a different view of two different cultures. It also compares the experience and non experience and how they learn to relate.

The only Anglo teen in the tiny town of Tres Pinos, 15-year-old Janet finds herself something of a loner. Close to her artistic but newly-divorced mother, the girl struggles with racial isolation and strange, macho dating customs of the hispanic youth around her. At night she is haunted by a recurring dream, in which an Indian brave aims his arrow--in slow motion, never quite reaching its target--at a peaceful white doe. Is this
dream symbolic of Janet's emotional purity or of the slender, quiet girl herself? Is this a hint of things to come or a link to someone's past?

By day she is confused and embarrassed about her unexplained interest in the town bum, Billy Honcho.
Why does she feel drawn to help and befriend the old Indian wino, whom reputable townsfolk shun. Could he really once have lead his people with pride and dignity, demonstating compassion for human beings and respect for Mother Earth? Delight in Paulsen's magic--a tale of the survival of the soul; his deft literary fingers weave a gentle story of a girl's coming of age in a hostile social environment. As Janet embarks on her own personal vision quest, both centuries and cultures blur mysteriously. Is it permitted for two lonely seekers to
briefly share a love which never was, but could have been?
This book will appeal to middle schooll girls and offers excellent cross cultural insight.

Sentries is a book about four people with the same dream. Dave,Laura,Sue,and Peter all have the same dream. Though they do not know each other at all. This book has many intresting events that will make you wonder.Also the life stories of these four people and the things they did to get where they are. Check it out for yourself today and be amazed at what you will find.

I am a junior high school teacher in Japan.I found this wonderful book in the school library.Everybody will be amazed by the construction of this book.But the more important thing is the vivid description of the heart of the youth.I love the story of Sue and the story of Lola especially. An Indian girl,Sue,met an Indian boy.And she woke up her self-knowledgement as an Indian.It was described through the changing of the way which she viewed her grandfather.I want to listen to him singing stories about animals,the wind,moon and seasons. The story of Lola,an only child in a sheep ranch,is also impressive .I can imagine the smell of the birth of sheep when reading this stoty.The connection between Lola and her parents through the common work of keeping sheep,was certainly described. The stories of three youths in the battle field are realistic because the auther heard them from the real soldiers from that time.I have been trying to tell the students about the misery of the war,so that the stories of young soldiers are impressive. I read Gary Paulsen's other book"TRACKERS".In this book the boy's changing heart about death was also described vividly. Peter Paulsen said that he wrote these books for youths but they touched on my heart as well although I am 55 years old.I think Gary Paulsen is a wonderful writer who can describe the heart of youths and Mother Nature vividly.

This is an unusual book--definitely not a novel, for the plot is non-existant. The storyline alternates among 4 teenagers and 3 veterans of different wars--none of whom meet each other. According to the Summary, there is a theme which provides commonality/literary glue (see Heading) but even that is somewhat obscure. The chapters are short and read quickly. Master story-teller Paulsen held my interest because I kept waiting for the four protagonists to interact and solve the world's problems--or at least their own.

But it was not to be, which lead to my frustration and disappointment. If he just wanted to write good short stories, he could have rearranged them, so that readers would realize when the end had been reached about a specific young adult. Nor did I notice any thread of nuclear disaster, as proclaimed on the back of the book. I found human vulnerability and dignity, as these young people sought meaning and direction in their lives. All four pursued th! eir goals differently, but it was unfortuate that they never knew of each other's dilemmas, so they could learn from each other's experience. A sad commentary on the social isolation of the teen years. Knowing the heights to expect from Paulsen, I felt cheated.

I like the World of Adventure series very much. But this book was somewhat of a disappointment. No doubt, it's interesting and has an exciting plot, but its promises go unrewarded sometimes. It's not as good as some other WOA books, but if you want to, try it.

This book was really cool. It was very suspenseful and I could hardly wait to finish it. It only took me 4 hours to read because I was so into it! Gary Paulsen is the coolest author ever.

This book is about a girl named Rachel Ellen Turner who was adopted by two alcoholic parents. They are loving though. They adopted her despite of her leg being stiff and her skin color being darker than their's. Rachel had no freinds at first, but then she met Python, a dog. They were inseparable.
One day the town that she is living in, Bolton, Kansas, desides to have amonument put in the town in honor of the people who died in war from Bolton. The town hires a man named Mick to build the monument. Rachel and Python met Mick and they all became best friends. They would walk around and Mick would draw everything he saw. He ended up teaching Rachel some artistic pointers.
I did not really care for this realistic fiction book. I thought it was boring. I think it could have been more interesting. I think elderly people would enjoy this book. I didn't like it because it wasn't action packed. It also didn't have anything to do with athletics. It just wasn't my type of book.

I am a junior in college, working for a degree in elementary and middle school education. I read this book for my "Teaching Young Adult Literature" class. The Monument is a great book for teachers to utilize in their classroom--especially if they would like to do a unit on books where the protagonist has a disability. Gary Paulsen does an excellent job of developing his charactrs, thus, creating empathy in his readers. I appreciate the advanced ideas he is able to portray to younger readers.

I really liked the book.it made me look in deeper to the way other people live like people who drink.They might look stupid but they do stuff like mike he drinks but he does something he loves art!

The book I read was called The Monument by Gary Paulsen. TRhe problemof the story is that the boy in the story named Mick has to build a monument for a city in Kansas,but everyonein the town has to like it. The main characters are Mick, Rachel, and Micks dog Rocky. The rising action is whern mick is getting to the deadline and he has to hurry up. the climax of the story is when problems arise and by the time they clear up the deadline is already there. They make it but they almost dont. The resolution is when all the people see the art and admire it. This connects to me because last year we had to draw pictures and the whole school had to like them. We made it in time and we got to have the joy that mick got in the book.

Gary Paulsen's The Monument is a very eccentric story of a young African American girl with a leg brace in an orphanage. Rocky (the young girl) feels as if no one will ever adopt her and one day a couple walked in and said that they wanted to adopt her and she fills with a magical feeling inside herself. Rocky lives the life she never thought she would have.In this magnificent book you go on with her through everything that is as new to her as it is to you. By Mackenzie

Rosa is a fourteen-year-old "illegal" immigrant from Mexico. In order to survive, she sells her body to men who call her many different names. It is her hope to be so much more than this when she has enough money.

Traci is also fourteen--she wants to be a cheerleader...but she know the world is much different than what she has been taught all her life. What is she missing?

SISTERS is a strong short story about two very different girls who, with one glance, know there is something the same about them. But SISTERS has the same problem as other short stories--it ends when it is just getting started...then again, I think it is an accurate portrayal of how society conditions us.

We are taught to believe one thing. We realize the opposite is true--but we falter when we do not know how to stand up against those who taught a lie so well.

Recommended for Age 14+.

This book are a educational and real. This book talk about the younger's dream, because they don't have school or can't go to school because they don't are resident or citizen, and need to work for send money to their family. Some of this people came to U.S.A. because they don't have support on the family,and they don't have money for education, food, rent, dresses they have only one way is work on fiels but some of the supervisors dont't like work with young people, in to much job's are the same problem. The government don't have programs for this people they only work on the prostitution, because on this kind of job want to young people don't matter boy's or girl's.
I know some times the mother's work very hard for their kida can study,it's fine but a don't like when the mother are very stronger, because kids can't play, see television or due any other activity, and they grew up very fast.

Sisters was a wonderful story.The setting was a city in Mexico around the 1980's where Betty and Carmelita were born.The main characters are the Paulsens ,Betty, and Carmelita. The Paulsens were a great great family but after years past they told Betty and Carmelita that they were their step parents. The part that I like is when their step parents told them that the they're not the girls real parents and told the girls the true story about their parents' death.I recommend this book to people 13-15 years old because it's a good book about life. Also, I recommend this book because it's a very interesting book to read because it was sad and funny too.

The key to the set-up of the dual language edition, for me, was reading it, juxtapositioned, in the two languages. The translator uses quite a few slang words in Spanish and catches the nuances of the story in the language beautifully. I probably would have been very dissapointed if I could only read one side of the story (one language or the other, but not both). It is the juxtaposition, the contrasting of the stories in BOTH languages that brings out the nuances of beauty. It's like this story was MEANT to be set this way. If you can't read it in both langauges (and it is really easy to read in Spanish, due to Paulsen's style and the translator's keeping to it), you probably won't like it as much as I did.

Lo clave, para mi, fue que yo podía leer la novela en los dos idiomas. Es la yuxtaposición de los dos cuentos, los detalles del idioma contado por dos jovenes que sea lo importante. El cuento tenía que estar traducido así. Si puedes leerla en los dos idiomas, creo que te va a ver lo que veía yo: una obra maestra.

This book is great! I liked the short excerpts from each girl's day. Having the excerpts short and switching from one girl to the other made clear the similarities. I liked the theme of the destructiveness of obsession with beauty and youth. The obsession is so prevalent in our culture and in this book you can see the horrible damage it can do to young women. It is great this is a bilingual book. I would have been most impressed if Gary Paulsen had actually written it in both languages, alas, he did not. But he had a wonderful idea though. My only problem was with Traci recognizing herself in Rosa. Realistically, I do not think that would have happened. Although Traci going along with her mother would have.

A great book in the genre of the open road as the author takes his Harley from New Mexico to Alaska

If you're looking for this book, it has been newly reprinted (word for word) under the title, _Zero to Sixty: The Motorcycle Journey of a Lifetime_.
I love many of Gary Paulsen's books. I've heard Gary discuss his books at a bookstore appearance; Gary appears to be a very genuine, intelligent, and caring man and author.
BUT, this book seems to have been cobbled together to meet a contractual obligation. Not only is the book short, but the print line spacing is expanded to "fluff" the text. Typical books have 28 to 32 lines of text per page; this book has 24. The title doesn't even match: the journey isn't a "pilgrimage," since the length of trip is more important than the destination. While the book is in part about Gary Paulsen's relationship with motorcycles and journeys, it isn't about "men and motorcycles." There's some glorification of how a Harley, different from any other motorcycle, "brought me out of myself, out ahead of myself, into myself, into the core of what I was, what I needed to live," but no thought about WHY the Harley brand does this for Gary -- or why other motorcyclists feel that other brands fit THEIR soul. (See _The Perfect Vehicle: What It is about Motorcycles_ for Melissa Holbrook Pierson's take on her relationship with her Moto Guzzi.)
_Pilgrimage_ contains some interesting insights into Gary Paulsen's life, and has some beautifully written passages: but that's what you might expect in a long magazine interview.
The profanity is inappropriate and very stilted. Further, the profanity suddenly and almost totally stops halfway through the book at the start of chapter five -- almost as if an editor said, "Gary, you've got to throw some profanity into the first half of the book. After all, it is a 'Harley book.'" Who knows -- maybe the same editor later said, "hey, let's put out the same book under a different title and not tell anyone."
Borrow this book if you must read it -- it's a very quick read. But DON'T give up on Gary Paulsen if this is your first book of his -- he's an excellent writer -- just not here -- and perhaps not in his other directly autobiographical books.

A very fast read, a few hours for a slow reader. If you are looking for an inspiring book to get you out on the road in your fifties it might do it for you. Mostly he talks of his life before this ride he takes with a friend to Alaska during a month long trip. About the only thing memorable about his trip was rain and more rain and the lousy road condition on the Alaska highway. A bunch of poor stories about growing up and about the times he did the Alaskan Ididrod with team of dogs and a sled. He should have written a story about that he seemed more knowledgeable. Not really a profound writer with deep articulated insight. Blue collar over 60 harley riders might like and relate. It was just ok.

This book is nothing but a rant with a great deal of lewd, foul language and situations. It includes items from the authors life, such as stories about high stakes poker games, barely-stand-up-drunkeness, more foul language, and more sexual situations and fantasies. Not the book I intended to read by the cover and search criteria. I had hoped to find a book that would express in words what it is like to RIDE a motorcycle. Not to the store. Not on a good weekend with perfect weather. But a book about the open road and how a mtorocycle moves a person to peace and change in their lives. I do not know if I will be able to finish it due to the language and situations it describes. NOT A BOOK TO SHARE WITH SOMEONE INTERESTED IN "THE QUEST" or a kid.

Gary Paulsen is admittedly patently insane, but that shouldn't stop you from reading this book. Alcoholic parents turned him homeless at age 14, so he eked out a bare existence doing any thing that paid, from fence posting to tarring roofs and digging septic systems, cutting trees in snow, picking crops with migrants, etc.
You might ask, why do you care about this guy's life? Because while the book's title suggests a road journey, the subtitle suggests otherwise: "a memoir about men and motorcycles." But this book is not about either; there is only one bike involved and one guy's story. Since I don't believe in false advertising, I would change that subtitle to "a memoir about myself." And this is what we get. We get an award-winning book author who makes no compromises with his life, who clocked up 10,000 miles on the Alaskan Highway astride his Harley the moment he laid $19K on her and just weeks after doctors told him he had heart disease. And that's nothing compared to the 20,000 miles he claims he's done as a real sled-dog musher and Iditarod finisher.
Paulsen's writing style is direct, in-your-face, colloquial. This explains why his books are big sellers in the "young adult" market. He's never eloquent, but then you don't have to be when you can write something like this: "To seek. Not to find, not to end but to always seek a beginning."
Paulsen is like so many riders out there scribbling on the slab: a pilgrimage is not about traveling to any holy place since the holy place is found in the traveling itself.
At only 179 pages, Steel Ride is a fast read and despite the journey to Alaska, the book doesn't exactly inspire trekking there because we hardly get out of Paulsen's own head trip. For every mile we go forward we get two miles back into his personal history. But it's a fascinating history and a kind of life better heard than lived.
He pleads with the reader about hurrying up to Alaska by any means possible "before it's too late, before the jaws of life clamp down on your neck." Now there's some good advice.

I think my perception may be biased in favor of this book because I both read and write young-adult sci-fi. And looking at how thin this book is, I went into it expecting a short story, not a novel. And I got just what I was looking for -- a fun, quick read paced for young teens. I enjoyed it. At the same time, I understand other reviews of this book that wanted the depth of a full-length novel. Frankly, I agree I would have enjoyed having more meat on the bones of this book and that it would have been even better. But that's not what it is. It's a short story written for middle grades. And a fun one.

Very exciting and imaginative book. Excellent for young readers. Only wish it were longer-didn't want it to end.

Gary Paulsen has churned out an unoriginal tale peopled with cardboard characters in his novel Time Hackers. Which is unfortunate from this skilled and award-winning author, but not uncommon in this category of fiction. However, if that were the only problem, I'd give this book 2, possibly 3 stars, as a quick, harmless bit of fluff for kids.

Unfortunately, while this book is fluff, it isn't harmless. I'm no prude or fundamentalist. In fact, I consider myself to be a classical liberal, and I've spent 42 years reading both widely and deeply within the realm of English language literature, including my studies in grad school. Not that this fact means anything, other than I'm not some small-minded provincial, who doesn't understand that literature (at its best) is a look at the human condition.

And yet, it means something that I would even need to make such a dislaimer for what I'm about to say, and therein, perhaps, lies part of the problem.

I make a habit of reading the books my kids read. It doesn't take much time or effort (even one of the Harry Potter tomes is only a matter of a few hours) and it keeps me in touch, opening the door to many hours of enjoyable conversation with my children about an artform that is dear to my heart. Thus, when my daughter brought this book home, I picked it up and breezed through it.

After which I decided my daughter didn't need to be--in fact shouldn't be--subjected to a story in which the driving force behind one of the two main characters is his desire to see the famous women of history naked. Had this been something in passing, a quick gag, that would have been one thing. But this subplot literally comes up every few pages; it is, in fact, the very substance of the character in question.

I am well aware that the YA (or teen) category of fiction has long since mainstreamed sex as an explorable topic--but do we really want to sexualize elementary school students? Besides, this isn't even a positive sexual message. The character doesn't see these women as anything other than objects, their places in history notwithstanding.

Perhaps Paulsen thinks this character merely refelcts reality. And to some degree he's probably correct. But is this really the place for that sort of reflection? Does it matter that my daughter (and many other people's daughters) might in some small way come to think of themselves as mere sex objects? Sexuality is wonderful, but it should not be the way girls--or boys, for that matter--judge their self worth.

Indeed, I've nothing whatsoever against human sexuality. (Once again, it seems strange that I should even feel the need to make such a disclaimer, lest my commentary be dismissed offhand--is that truly where we are as a society?) But there is a time and a place for everything. And what is essentially a chapter book aimed at elementary school kids is not the place for misogyny played for laughs.

That's one dad's opinion, anyway.

I am an elementary teacher and have a tendancy to read more childrens books than adult books. This book was only 87 pages long but took me just as long to read as some 300-400 page books I picked up over the summer. I actually had to force myself to finish reading it. While I think that the story idea itself was interesting, the characters were not very well developed and the events seemed to jump from one to another rather too quickly. Definitely the worst book I read this summer...I will not be taking back to school in the fall and recommending it to my students.

This is a great, fast-paced story for those who like sci/fi time travel adventures! Dorso is a "regular" kid who lives in the future (the story never says exactly what date it is). He has a friend, Frank, who's the comic relief in the book. Someone is playing a prank on them - they keep getting transported (it only lasts for about 60 seconds) back in time. They see glimpses of Beethoven, Custer, wooly mammoths, Gettysburg, etc. - these are the best parts of the story. The dialogue between the boys gets a little repetitive and boring at times - it seems like they keep saying the same things at times. But overall, if you like computers, technology, adventure, mystery, and suspense - you'll like this book!

Eventhough I appreciated the book showing my child how fortunate he is, it was too dark.

I teach 8th graders who are at-risk, resistant readers. Maybe the young person who posted a poor review didn't have anyone to help him process this book, as my kids were spellbound. You could hear a pin drop in my room. What does it tell you when a group of kids who normally drag themselves late to class and then behave poorly are suddenly getting to class early, passing the books out to their table groups before being asked, opening to the current page before the bell rings and trying to read ahead? This book has some pretty volatile content, though, and I wouldn't recommend for readers under the age of 12 or 13.



Roughly every other chapter has scenes that are told from the viewpoint of the American soldier, who obviously is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome (although they never call it that). These scenes are pretty surreal, and you have to help young readers understand that when it talks about his drinking to keep his "friends" from "coming to visit," the text is referring to ghosts, either fellow soldiers he couldn't protect or save during combat, or perhaps those he had killed from the enemy's side.



You also have to help them understand what Manny, the young boy, is fighting to survive, trying to avoid the "street men" who would kidnap him for "Raoul, who likes young boys" and trying to survive complete poverty with nobody to take care of him. The text is never explicit about what it would mean for Manny to be kidnapped for "Raoul," who never makes an appearance, but my students, when asked, offered comments such as, "Raoul wants to do bad things to him. He likes hurting kids." That was good enough for our discussion to move on. Some kids got the more adult insinuation, and some did not, but they still all understood what a desperate struggle Manny endured in order to survive.



This book has a powerful ending with the climax coming paragraphs before the final lines on the final page. When we finished, there was a lot to think about and reflect upon. Ahead of time, I was unsure about sharing with my kids because of the violence and alcoholism portrayed, but afterward, overheard a number of students at various times telling friends that they just had to read this book. High praise coming from my particular kids!



P.S. I notice that an earlier edition of this same book has gotten a 4-star rating here on amazon.com. :)

How would you feel if you where a bum on the street? The Crossing by Gary Paulsen is about a kid named Manny who is a bum who lives in a card board box, and begs for change. If you're on the edge of your seat it probably means that your going to get another book.
This story tackes place in Juarez Mexico modern day. First lets talk about Manny he's 14 years old and a poor bum who lives in a card board box and has red hair. Every day Manny begs for money by lying and hiding. Now Robert is a different story he is a sergeant, alcoholic and wealthy. He's a alcoholic because he's trying to forget a dreadful event. The plot of this story is for many to cross to the U.S. but that's when he meets the sergeant and they have a little adventure of there own.
The reason I don't like The Crossing by Gary Paulsen is. They don't talk about exciting events, and they make scenes longer than they should but most of all its boring. although I didn't like The Crossing by Gary Paulsen I think 13 years or older boys would like The Crossing by Gary Paulsen. This book is not something I'd recommend for Gary Paulsen fans.

I did not like the book. It was too easy. I would not recommend to a 7th or 6th grader, more like a 4th or a beginning 5th grader. It is a childish book.

The story is about a two girls named Bonny and Bobbie. Bobbie comes from California to see her cousin and to learn how to ride bulls. One day when they wake up they find some one stole their horses, cows, and their bull, Diablo. Will they find the thieves?

The book Hook Em Snotty is the best book that I have ever read. it is best suited for ages 9-12. The book isn't very long so if you don't like very long books and you like country life then this is the book for you.It starts with a grandpa and his grandaughter living on a ranch.The grandaughter has to go to the grass plains every summer to round-up wild cattle.Then her cousin from the city shows up and the grandaughter has to take the cousin with her. They are ridding through a conyon and the horse gets spooked and the cousin gets thrown off the horse into a mud hole. Then they get to the corral where they put the wild cattle. then they set up camp for the night. If you want to find out the rest of the adventures that they encounter read the book Hook Em Snooty.My opinion of this book is very good. Gary Paulsen had very good deatil about the grass plains.

A great story of the coming of age of a 16 year old boy, after running away from home, having to work in beet fields, being a farm hand, losing all his money, having an unfortunate hitchhiking experience, meeting a lonely woman and finally ending up as a hired hand in a carnival and becoming a man.