Several of the chapters of my new book "Cheechako" were originally published in CRICKET, the children's magazine. In fact, it was one of their editors who sent me a very nice letter saying "this should be a book." While that's a wonderful letter to receive, it still took me about twenty years to put the whole thing together.
It was shortly after that I first met up with "Hatchet," Gary Paulsen's totally absorbing youth novel, enjoyed by youthful readers of all ages. I loved that it was set in the wilderness, loved that the situation puts the boy, Brian, totally off on his own and lets him work it out.
The "off by himself" is critical, even in a story that has nothing to do with the outdoors.
In a summer session with Jane Yolen at Western Washington University, I had written a segment that included a boy magician who went up to his attic to work on spells, and locked the attic door behind him. One of my session-mates questioned locking the door.
Yolen reinforced that locking the door gives that youthful character the independence that having an adventure requires. Much of the chemistry in a youth novel involves settings and situations that put the protagonist on his own. Away from parents and even friends. Most of us can remember how freeing that was in our own lives.
Not all stories can happen in the wilderness, like Paulsen's or mine, sometimes an entire adventure of wilderness, or wildness ... independence ... can be created in a garden, a school for wizards, or at the back of an old wardrobe.
"Hatchet" is a fabulous book. I re-read it almost yearly and collect used copies to hand out. And when people ask me what my book is about, I can tell them enthusiastically that if they liked Paulsen's book they will like "Cheechako."
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