Yeah, definitely wasn't realistic. He would have ended up going the way of Chris McCandless for sure. But, I found it really exciting to read about a kid being so wonderfully self-sufficient, fantasy or not.

Yeah, I also remember feeling strange about the ending even as a kid. That's what made the alternate reality of Brian's Winter so exciting when that came along, though! Brian really started to kick serious ass when the cold set in.

I loved Hatchet when I was 11 too, but I loved My Side Of The Mountain even more. It's undoubtedly less realistic, but that's actually what made it so compelling to me. Sam was just SO GREAT at his wilderness survival adventure. He tamed a freaking falcon, for Christ's sake. It was competence porn before that that…