May 17, 2012
Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen
Reading Level: 5.5 Accelerated Reader Pts: 5.0
Living on the frontier, thirteen-year old Samuel has learned to survive
in the forest that surrounds his home. His parents, on the other hand, love
the woods but do not understand them like Samuel. He has an uncanny ability
to hunt and track animals and to find his way through the wilderness. "The
forest embraced him, took him in and made him a 'woods runner'."
The setting of the story is the wilderness of the British colony of
Pennsylvania in 1776. The American patriots begin a bloody battle against
the English and, for a time, the war seems so far away. Then British
soldiers and the Iroquois savagely attack and take Samuel's parents
prisoner. Samuel follows their trail to try to rescue them and finds himself
deep into enemy territory.
Gary Paulsen brings the reader into a young boy's flesh-and-blood
reality of the long and savage Revolutionary War. Preceding each chapter,
the author provides true historical notes about the communication, frontier
life, weapons, warfare, civilian intelligence, war orphans, and treatment of
prisoners of war during the War for Independence. The author's purpose is
not to write the history of the war, but to clarify some aspects that are
usually glossed over. This is a revealing piece of historical fiction that
would appeal to anyone wanting to learn more about the Revolutionary
War.