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    Woods Runner
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    Woods Runner
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    Woods Runner
    Audiobook3 hours

    Woods Runner

    Written by Gary Paulsen

    Narrated by Danny Campbell

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Samuel, 13, spends his days in the forest, hunting for food for his family. He has grown up on the frontier of a British colony, America. Far from any town, or news of the war against the King that American patriots have begun near Boston.

    But the war comes to them. British soldiers and Iroquois attack. Samuel's parents are taken away, prisoners. Samuel follows, hiding, moving silently, determined to find a way to rescue them. Each day he confronts the enemy, and the tragedy and horror of this war. But he also discovers allies, men and women working secretly for the patriot cause. And he learns that he must go deep into enemy territory to find his parents: all the way to the British headquarters, New York City.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 12, 2010
    ISBN9780307710338
    Unavailable
    Woods Runner
    Author

    Gary Paulsen

    Gary Paulsen (1939-2021) wrote more than two hundred books for children and adults. Three of his novels – Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room – were Newbery Honor books. In 1997, he received the ALA's Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature. His books have sold over 35 million copies around the world.

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    Reviews for Woods Runner

    4/5

    157 ratings28 reviews

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    • 5/5
      very good loved it
    • 5/5
      Excellent historical fiction.
    • 3/5
      this book is about a13 teen year old boy trying to save his family from the Red Coats during the revolutionary war. I thought this book was okay.
    • 5/5
      Great story about a great time in American history. Thanks
    • 3/5
      Gary Paulsen never disappoints. Excellent information. Excellent writing.
    • 4/5
      Of all the books that I have read by this author there was only one I did not care for...and this one isn't it! Woods Runner is a good tale of a 13 year old boy growing up on the western Pennsylvania frontier of the late 1700s. While most of the people in the settlement like their neighbors and bucolic lifestyle, young Samuel takes to the woods where he is most comfortable, disappearing for days while exploring, as well as hunting for the community. But while he is on one of his trips a force of British troops and Hessian mercenaries attack and destroy the settlement, massacring most of the people yet taking a few as prisoners...including Samuel's parents.This one is a page-turner, a book I could not put down until I found out how things turned out. While categorized as a youth book, it also is a fine adult read.
    • 5/5
      He only other Gary Paulsen book I have read was Hatchet. This was on the EBOB 2016-2017 list so I decided to read it. This book was excellent. It takes place during the Revolutionary war and set from the eyes of the frontiersmen. Paulsen doesn't gloss over the horror of this war at all. So many died in combat, but so many more died of filth, starvation and untreated wounds. Worse wounds that were cleaned with dirty sponges fished out if a pail of bloody creek water.

      "Woods Runner" also contains brief historical notes which are alternated between the narrative passages and which provide factual information about life in wartime in eighteenth-century America


      "Woods Runner" is the story of Samuel Smith, a thirteen-year-old boy living on the western frontier of Pennsylvania in 1776. Samuel lives with his parents, Olin and Abigail, in a settlement of small cabins surrounded by thick woods. Samuel's parents are newcomers to the frontier, having been raised and educated in eastern cities. Samuel, however, has grown up on the frontier and is most at home walking and hunting in the deep forest. His skills have far outpaced those of his parents and he has become the provider for his family.

      While on hunting excursion several miles from home, Samuel sights smoke rising from his cabin. He rushes back to find the cabins has been burned to the ground and several settlers brutally killed. Unable to find any evidence of his parents bodies, he believes that have been taken prisoner.

      As Samuel follows the trail of his parents' captors, he rescues an eight-year-old girl named Annie Clark whose parents are killed by Hessian mercenaries fighting for the British.she vows to never leave Samuels side as they search for "their" parents. On the road to the city, they are helped by a Scottish tinker named Abner McDougal who turns out to be actively engaged in spying against the British.

      With Abner's help, Samuel makes his way to British-controlled New York City, locates his parents, and rescues them in a daring escape across the Hudson River to New Jersey. Led by Samuel, the family, which now includes Annie as an adopted daughter, makes its way cross country toward Philadelphia, which is held by colonial forces. Samuel narrowly escapes death when he stumbles onto a British detachment in the woods, but is saved by rebel soldiers who fire on the unit and escort his family to safety. Samuel later returns to the fighting in support of a group of riflemen.
      .

    • 4/5
      My initial disclaimer is that I am not the target demographic for this book. Paulsen writes to young adult readers for the most part. I saw an article about him in BSA's Boys' Life magazine and was curious about his writing - I thought this book looked interesting so I thought I would check him out. It is really well written, both the characterizations and the historical research are good, and the story line is excellent. I am impressed with his writing style and even though his books are written to appeal to a younger audience I may read some more of his stuff. I really enjoyed this one.
    • 4/5
      Paulsen never ceases to amaze me. He's an amazing story teller and writer. What I enjoyed about this book most was the facts of the war given after the chapters. It really tied together what was happening in the story, but also makes history come alive.
    • 4/5
      Heck of a book. Paulsen is a gifted writer and he hits on all cylinders with this book. The pacing is great and the attention to detail in terms of the time period and human behaviors is excellent. (The book is set during the Revolutionary War.) Paulsen explains that he wants to present aspects of that 8 year period in our country's formation which are typically glossed over in books written for YAr: life on the outskirts of major cities, savage Hessian attacks, unexpected kindness, and atypical spy networking.

      I found myself using my Kindle highlighting function many times as I read this book. I was focused mostly on the brilliant descriptions. I many others focused on the historical aspects.

      I also really loved how Paulsen stopped at the end of each fiction chapter to present a short write-up of some non-fiction item relating to the time. For example, he explains the works of unbored versus bored rifles, British attack methods, and the brutal behaviors of the Hessians and British. He even, correctly, noted that many men who fought against the British did so with next to no training, low morale, and poor equipment. Some resorted to eating their shoes when food was gone.

      Excellent book. If you're a teacher and use My Brother Sam is Dead in your classroom, this MUST be used as a companion book in some way of another. Boys will eat is up especially.
    • 4/5
      Even though I'm sure I'm well beyond the age of the intended audience for "Woods Runner," the book kept me interested from beginning to end. It is a great story for both history buffs and wilderness lovers, since Samuel's story of survival during the War for Independence combines both. Not being American and therefore not well-versed in the goings-on during this war, I actually enjoyed the fact that Paulsen alternates the story with occasional one-page tidbits of information about the war and the conditions that real people lived through while it was going on. The story does not sugar-coat the realities of war and life in the wilderness--Paulsen does not shy away from mentioning and even describing brutality and bodily fluids, which makes it interesting even for older readers just coming to the book for the first time. One does not get the feeling of reading a watered-down "kids' book."One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the fair treatment of the subject matter. This being an American book about the American Revolution, I was a bit worried that I was getting into a story that would continually glorify the patriots and make them out to be fearless heroes fighting the evil, soulless British. I needn't have been concerned. Paulsen gives credit where credit is due (for example, he acknowledges the patriots for fighting for their independence against enormous odds), but he does not ignore the less admirable, human side of battle (for example, the fact that some volunteer American troops would beat a hasty retreat upon seeing walls of British bayonets). This holds true for both the British and the Americans in the story, and Paulsen even includes several author's notes to explain his treatment of the subject.The main aspect of "Woods Runner" that I was not crazy about was the fact that some of the characters, even main characters, can seem a little unrealistic and one-dimensional. For me, this even included Samuel himself, who, at thirteen, seemed far too stoic and mature to be believable. I understand, as Paulsen mentions, that young people at that time were forced to grow up a lot more quickly than young people today, but I still would have expected Samuel to be wracked with worry for his parents--at least for a longer period of time than he is in the story--and be afraid for his life, but he mostly just plods along determinedly and does not have much internal dialogue. Conversely, his parents and several other adults seem too young and trusting for their age, and are oddly willing to blindly allow Samuel to lead them into possibly life-threatening situations just because he survives well in the wilderness. This took something away from the otherwise pretty realistic (or, at least, realistic-feeling) story for me.Overall, "Woods Runner" is an enjoyable book that I would recommend to both people my own age and those for whom it was intended. If you are interested in hearing a (fairly) realistic, down-to-earth account of the blood, gore, bravery, and loss that occurs during a war, and/or enjoy tales of wilderness survival, definitely give it a try.
    • 4/5
      Great historical fiction. Will keep kids interested and the added historical notes do not detract from the readability. Great as a curriculum addition.
    • 2/5
      Part of the problem here is that I don't particularly care for war stories, but there are other problems too. Despite Paulsen's Afterword claiming that he wanted to bring attention to some of the horrible parts of war that are too often overlooked, I found the whole escape from New York improbably successful with too few hitches along the way. I think the book might have been better overall if it ended with no promises of safety when Samuel and his family seperated from Abel with their journey to Philadelphia still ahead of them. Some of the dialogue from Samuel's mother after this point was downright sappy and contrived and the escape felt like the most exciting part with everything after that on the downside of the climax taking too long. While I do think that kids will be fascinated by the gory, real-life details, I'm not sure having the non-fiction snippets inserted between chapters worked well - I almost think they would have been better as notes at the end of the book so they wouldn't interrupt the narrative flow. I'm afraid that with them placed in between chapters, kids will see this as a transparent attempt to feed them wholesome history with a story as sugar in between bits and that this will make them feel like they're being tricked (and poorly tricked at that). Though I suppose kids who are actually reading the book rather than listening to the audio could just skip the non-fiction bits if they wanted.

      Listened to the Listening Library audio edition narrated by Danny Campbell who did a very fine job with the narration. He provided distinct voices for all the characters and handled Abel's Scottish accent well.
    • 2/5
      Could not get into this one. I listened to the audio and wasn't a huge fan of the reader, so maybe that was the problem? I felt like the only parts I was able to pay attention to were the historical notes at the end of chapters.
    • 5/5
      Woods Runner, written by Gary Paulsen (2010) is a historical novel about the Revolutionary War, told through the perspective of a 13-year-old boy, Samuel. As he goes on a journey to find his parents, who were kidnapped by the British, he learns more about the world than he ever could imagine; about its harshness and cruelty, but also about its kindness and generosity. I could not put this book down, and while it contains violence, war, and death, it is a book that even 5th graders could build great discussions around. I would use this in a unit about the Revolutionary War. Also, students could write "I Wonder" statements about the range of subjects this book covers. Grades 5-8.
    • 5/5
       Samuel lives with his parents in the British colony of Pennsylvania. He thinks that the war is far away from him. But, Samuel is surprised when the war comes to him. Everything is destroyed and his parents are taken prisoner. Samuel is faced with many challenges while he tries to reunite with his parents.In my opinion the book is written in great detail. It describes what it was like to live around the time of the revolutionary war. The book describes what kinds of food they ate, what kinds of clothes they wore, and how they treated their wounds. I think it was very interesting.
    • 4/5
      Told from 13 year old Saumel's point of view, this is the story of a young boy who is forced into growing up faster than he should by the war. When he comes back from hunting one morning, he finds his village decimated and his family gone. On the look out for them, Samuel learns very quickly teh price and terrors of war. I loved the foreshadowing with the short non-fiction blurbs before each chapter. Not only did it give me a sense of what was coming, but also made the time and Samuel's experiences much more understandable.
    • 5/5
      This book is about a boy named Samuel. He lives in the middle of the woods, and he provides most of the food for his family. This takes place in the 1770's, around the time of the Revolutionary War. One day Samuel was hunting when he went home to find his friends and their houses completely destroyed. It was the British Army, and everybody was dead. Samuel couldn't find his parents thoguh, so the British must've taken them hostage. When he finds that at a small settlement, he accidentally comes across some Native Americans, and he shoots one but gets tomahawked by the other. He wakes up with some men, and they give him some food and he's off again,I liked this book a lot. I learned about the British Army some more, and they were pretty mean. They had German mercanaries with them, and they were called the Hessians. Samuel almost runs itno them, but instead they go to a little girl's house, bayonet her parents, and burn the place down, all in less than a minute. Samuel finds the girl, and she goes with him to find his parents. Later, with some help from friends, they find Samuel's parents and adopt the little girl called Annie. Then they find a house in the city and live together as a family.
    • 4/5
      Wood's Runner is about a boy named Samuel and how he lives in the woods with his parents. His parents lived in the towns of the colonial United States of America while the Revolution was being fought. His parents decided to move away from the villages and into the woods because they liked the peace and quite out there away from the towns. Then one day while Samuel is out in the woods hunting for bear he notices smoke coming from the direction of his small village. Then he travels back to his village to see what the problem was and what was causing the smoke. But when he gets there he finds that the houses were burned and the people were killed. He looks the dead people to see if his parents are among them, but when he finds that there are not there he looks at the foot prints and the ground to try and figure out what happened. He also tries to see in what direction his parents went. This book is about Samuel travels through the woods trying to find his parents and the problems he comes into while he searching for his parents.I gave this book a four star rating. I gave it a four star rating because I thought that the way this author wrote this book was good. I also liked that the author was able to describe what it was like to be in the woods and traveling through them. I didn't give this book the fifth star because he could have been more descriptive and said more about what Samuel was thinking while he was searching through the woods. I also liked that this book had the main character be a person who knew what there were doing. Also that he was able to figure out what has happened to his parents and the other captives be looking at the foot prints. I also like that the author was very descriptive in telling what the world was like around him and was able to make a picture about what the trees, grass, animals, and just every thing around Samuel. I also especially like that the author had Samuel really look for his parents instead of just walking to a camp and taking his parents away with him and I also liked that the author involved the history at the time into the book.
    • 4/5
      When Samuel finds his parents have been captured by British soldiers, he travels to New York with a plan to rescue them from captivity. Samuel uses his knowledge of the woods, wits, and encounters with helpful strangers in order to make his quest to his parents, adopting a sister along the way. A page turner that gave me a lot of insight about life for Americans as the Revolutionary War started around them.
    • 5/5
      During the American Revolution, Samuel lives in the forests of western Pennsylvania, far removed from the battles and knowledge of war. Samuel at 13 is a talented hunter and woodsman, and provides most of the meat for his family and their closest neighbors. He is out hunting on the day that British soldiers and hired Indians arrive and massacre most of the people he knows, and capture the rest, including his parents. Samuel tracks them east, as they travel towards New York City and the infamous British prison ships. Along the way he finds more Iroquois Indians, Hessian mercenary soldiers, and tough, helpful American rebels. Violence, blood and guts, courage and loyalty are all key elements of the story. Gary Paulsen is one of our finest survival story writers, and he has captured a time period especially relevant to 8th grade social studies. He's also created a work in which single page nonfiction writing pieces separate the chapters, and give crucial information about life during the 1770s. Each piece is immediately relevant to the next chapter's events, and these give readers the realistic facts of war in those times. War is not a glorious event here. Honest and realistic historical fiction -- excellent for 6th grade and up, and a fantastic choice for summer reading for anyone going into 8th grade
    • 5/5
      I love this book. It was exciting and you couldn't wait for what happens next. It was about a boy who was trying to save his parents from the British. After he saw smoke coming from his town he ran home. Every one was dead and the builds were burned but they took his parents. It is amazing that someones life can be spared because of a game. Also I can't believe that Annie's parents died because they were so nice. At the end of the book I think it was good that Samuel helped in the army.that was a good way to end it.
    • 4/5
      From his 1776 Pennsylvania homestead, thirteen-year-old Samuel, who is a highly-skilled woodsman, sets out toward New York City to rescue his parents from the band of British soldiers and Indians who kidnapped them after slaughtering most of their community. Includes historical notes.
    • 4/5
      Good book. Very interesting.
    • 3/5
      It's hard to know what to say here. I don't usually care for Gary Paulsen, and I didn't care much for this, but I can see why other people like his work -- it's smart, it's thoughtful, it's just not my thing.In this, a young boy living on the Pennsylvania frontier witnesses his parents captured by the English army, and sets out on a journey to New York City in an attempt to rescue them. On the way, he witnesses more hardship and atrocities resulting from the percolating war. Even though I like this period, and have visited the Sugar House site (where his parents are being held) and lived very close to the Prison Ship Victims monument, in no way was this book any sort of adventure -- it was one, long, dismal slog. Which is the author's stated intent, he is trying to educate readers about the sad consequences of war, especially the impact on children and orphans. He's successful in this, but again, it's not really for me. Given the title, I was also hoping to learn more about the woodcraft of colonial days, I was sorry this was not incorporated into the story more.
    • 4/5
      Suspenseful story about the Revolutionary War. Samuel, who lives in the frontier with his parents, returns from hunting to find his settlement burned. While the other settlers have been killed, his parents were taken prisoner. He follows their trail, and with the help of strangers along the way, he manages to help them escape. Nuggets of informational passages about the war are tucked in at the end of chapters and help to explain relevant facts.
    • 5/5
      In the beginning I was bored with Woods Runner. I'm not really a huge fan of survival fiction but I do like some historical fiction. But, I thought the historical notes were distracting because they occur after each chapter. Then I noticed that they were pretty much geared towards what you just read, so they could actually add to the reading. But I didn't like that so I stopped reading them.My impression of Woods Runner changed drastically after Sam went out hunting the bear. Oh.My.Word. The description of the raids and Sam following the raiders was amazing. I had to read with one eye closed and I had to keep some tissues nearby. Gary Paulsen's details add an additional dimension to the book that never felt intrusive. I could barely put the book down. I actually closed my office door and turned off the overhead light. I did not want to be disturbed. Woods Runner gave me a different perspective on the Revolutionary War. I can't wait to hand this to the social studies teachers. I hope they add this as a reading choice when they study this time period. It's a fast read but it's not easy. The trauma Sam, his parents, and then Annie, experience is haunting. By having us follow Sam as he tries to track down his parents, Paulsen was able to insert the historical aspects without slowing down the story. We learned about the redcoats, their weaponry, the Hessians, war prisoners, and normal people who helped the Americans. It was a nice lesson and didn't feel like you were being "schooled".
    • 4/5
      While I enjoyed this book, I was disappointed in how rushed it was. I expected a more detailed adventure story. I did enjoy the realistic view of the cost of war, namely the thousands of innocent men, women and children that were killed or imprisoned.