Brian's return is a book about a 16 year old who has finally been rescued form the wilderness.The time is about a year later after Brian has been rescued form the wilderness of Canada. (I recommend you read the first three before reading this one our at least the first one).Brian can't stand living in the city and wants to return to the wilderness but if he dose he will bring a couple helpful items.The question is will he? If you liked The hatchet and the other two and would like to know the final ending of Brian's adventures i recommend this book.This book is not as action packed as the other three but is a very surprising and fun book to read.

Brian's Return is the third and final sequel to Gary Paulsen's 1988 Newbery Honor book Hatchet. In this sequel Brian is an unhappy 15 year old high school student who is having great difficulty adjusting to a normal "civilized" life after being alone in the wilderness. For almost two years he tries to fit in but he just can't seem to connect with his old friends and their seemingly trivial concerns. Through conversations with a counselor Brian realizes that he must return to the wilderness to find himself and his place in the world. This book chronicles his canoe trip back into the wild. Paulsen's desciptions of the scenery and wildlife are so vivid and realistic that readers will feel they are on the trip with Brian. If you have read Hatchet, The River, and Brian's Winter, you MUST read Brian's Return. Although it is a little more reflective than the other action packed books, it is still a fitting conclusion to Brian's saga. I highly recommend Brian's Return.

I think Brian's Return is a great book. If you have read Hatchet, The River, and Brian's Winter (like I have) then you will understand the story better 'cause you probably wouldn't really understand it if you haven't read at least one of those three books that came before this one. This time, Brian is back at home and he can't seem to adjust to his formal life at home. After he gets into a huge fight with this kid who is jelous of him and gets arrested for it, he decides that the best place for him is back in the woods and so he goes back there. This time, Brian is prepared and he is used to the way the woods is so he can survive. I think this book is awesome and if you have read Hatchet, The River, and Brian's Winter and liked those books, then I can gaurentee that you will like Brian's Return! Even if you haven't read those books but have read other books by Gary Paulsen then you should get this book!

I took this book off my shelf because it had been there since I was in college (and doing drugs) and I wanted to see what it was like before I sold it. I knew it'd be the standard drugs=spirituality which sounded so impressive in college and so dumb now. I figured it'd bore me in the first 50 pages. It didn't.

Instead it angered me at first. It's Noble Savage arrogance coupled with its 60s "drugs are so cool" aesthetic just bothers me. A prime example would be the narrator going to visit one of don Juan's friends that "knows how to dance like a NATURAL man". Castenada visits the guy's house, finds out that he's working in the field, and then comes back just as the guy has finished working. Castaneda says that the Indian seems tired, blitzed out of his mind, like he was on drugs. Castaneda apparently was too stupid to realize that a person picking grapes under the hot sun for 10 hours straight isn't going to seem very coherant. Castaneda then wonders why the migrant worker won't show him his magical dance steps and shoos him off the front steps.

Several other scenes like this abound, such as Castaneda getting sad when he sees begger children, but being told that they are more free. Or Castaneda laughing at the "gentle ironic humor" of his subject telling him that he'd probably use his first book as toilet paper (oh ha ha - poverty is so cute.)

But then I realized that Castaneda is telling all these stories second-hand, while don Juan and friends keep pushing peyote and psichlobin mushrooms on him. That's when the book was funny. If you are smart enough to realize that it's the story of a bunch of Indians annoyed with a smug white guy and decided to mess with his head. Sadly it's told from teh white guy's perspective, but it is funny just how clueless he is about the ways in which he's being mocked, ridiculed and played with throughout the book...P>So if you are into the drugs=spirituality kick, read this book because it will open your mind. However, if you have a modicum of intelligence and enough experience and perception to get over the Nobel Savage stereotype, you'll find this to be one of the funniest books ever -- a classic in Indian humor.

A separate reality was a great book. Carlos is the greatest Author of all time and I know that isn't what he set out to be but that is what happend. I'm 15 years old and I stumbeld on to Carlos's writing on acident I dont even like reading but when i first started reading The Teachings of Don Juan I couldnt pout it down I try to get as much as i posibly can get out of reading his books just like Carlos I try to learn from Don Juan to. As many of you know Carlos Castaneda past away some time ago so he will never be able to read these reviews. If he was still around there is one question i would like would like to ask him "are these stories fact or fiction?" if anyone out there can help me with this question please E-mail me.

One of Carlos Castenada's best writings. An absolute classic. Reading this book is like participating in Castenada's experiences first hand. His descriptive writing and narration couldn't have been better. If you're looking for a universally philosophical book, this is a must. Castaneda dives in and out of Don Juan's teachings, giving the audience a taste of Yaqui tradition and knowledge. It's a definite eye opener for those who are able to piece Don Juan's "thematic puzzles" together. But, some may have trouble comprehending what may seem like B.S. throughout the story. There may also be some confusion in pieces of the book if you haven't read the prerequisite (Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge). Don't hesitate to check this book out. It's incredibly powerful.

Canyons is a really good book. It's about a fifteen year old boy named Brennan who goes camping up in the canyons, and finds a skull. He ends up taking it home, and he does some research on it. He finds out that it belonged to an Apache Indian boy, about his age, named Coyote Runs. Later Brennan gets in trouble with the cops, over the skull. Although the book didn't really seem that interesting when I started it, towards the end it gets really good. I think you will enjoy it!

This book was Da Bomb!. If you want a book with suspense and drama read Canyons. This book was about a boy named Brennan and a skull he found when he was on a camping trip. In the first part it has double life chapters. In other words, it had one chapter with Brennan and one chapter on an apache boy named Coyote Runs.

This book seemed boring at first, In the beginning the author introduce the characters, but after that there doesn't seem to be enough action,but when you get into it the book gets more interesting, for instance, get's to the point were four or five chapters later you get into the book more easily, because it tells about coyote Runs

"Canyons" is an interesting book and it's one of Gary Paulsen's best. Coyote Runs was a young Apache Indian that was just going through the ritual of becoming a man when he got killed by some soldiers. About 100 years later, a fourteen year old boy named Brennan finds Coyote Runs's skull while on a camping trip in the canyons. He gets attached to the skull once he starts hearing mysterious voices that are like spirits speaking to him from the skull. Brennan wants to find out more about the skull. Eventually he decides to do something with it and he won't let anybody stand in his way until he does it.

"Canyons" is a good and compelling book. Gary Paulsen alternately tells the story of Coyote Runs and Brennan, and eventually brings their two stories together to make the book even better. There are several high points in the story that seem like they're the climax of "Canyons," but as you read on you'll read even better parts, making it all the more compelling. If you like good adventure books, I definitely recommend reading "Canyons."

I finally gave in and read this book. After so many people telling me I HAD to, I was determined not to, but lo and behold, I was desperate for a "subway" read and it literally appeared before me in our company book bin.

To my surprise, I found I was hooked immediately. It definitely has a soap opera feel, and at times is melodramatic, but on the whole, the author offers a sweet, sad story. It's definitely predictable, but sometimes that's ok. What I liked best was that Mr. Evans actually developed his characters. There were elements of depth that I'm not use to reading in popular novels.

All in all,I would recommend this book. I have a feeling it's probably better than the Robert Redford film, which I bet is more focused on his character, Tom Booker, than the book was. But, I guess, eventually I'll rent it and see for sure. And, hopefully, be pleasantly surprised.

Nicholas Evans writes a great story. Action, romance, horses and human drams all make for a wonderful book. Evans gives the reader good characterizations, exploring the history of each character in the novel. It's easier to understand their present actions when we know about their past. Relationships between the people and with the horse, Pilgrim are the main focus. The bond of trust and love that was shattered between Grace and Pilgrim was also reflected in Grace's stormy relationship with her mother, Annie. Grace's healing, emotionally and physically is tied to Pilgrim's. The ability to move on with their lives could only happen when they were both ready for it. Annie's committment to healing the horse seemed beyond common sense at the time, but it held the key to helping Grace heal. Annie showed alot of different sides to her personality. She was a tough, ruthless executive, yet irrational in her personal life. The changes in her character were a little too fast and extreme to be believable. The book read very fast, it keeps you hooked from the start

Unlike some other reviewers I wasn't expecting this book to be a great work of modern literature but rather a beautiful story that everyman could relate to with a bit of thought. I wasn't disappointed. Maybe the author was a screenwriter and maybe the sentimental story itself is set out to read like a movie plot unfolding, none of that, to my way of thinking, diminished the simple zen beauty of the authors prose which reflected the search for an inner calm in each of the main characters.

Others here have commented on the gore and adrenalin surging accident of Grace and the conveniently named Pilgrim and I from similar experiences found it traumatic - for the horse, but not for Grace herself because her story is really the means by which she and her mother find grace. Her mother Annie is forced to take stock of a life that she fears is not satisfying and which casts an effect on her child and her marriage.

If Tom, in a typical display of the western horseman, seems wooden through a lack of dialogue it is because he relates to the world through the horses he works with, espousing the simple wisdoms of a man who has learned to read what is subtle and unspoken. His loneliness is echoed in the souls of Pilgrim, Grace and Annie.

That Annie and Tom predictably fall in love and betray her marriage vows, in a different rendition of Graces relationship with Pilgrim, is not an issue. It is that only through the catalyst for change in Tom and the nature of his work with Pilgrim we find the key to the characters, that they too must sacrifice the instinct for self preservation to be remade with maturity.