A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

I finished reading A Week in the Woods while on an overnight camping trip with 60 of our sixth graders, and I’m glad I’ll be able use it in a book talk next week. My students were adorable as they talked about Brian from Hatchet throughout our trip, so I know the interest level will be high in another outdoors story. A Week in the Woods is really a cross between a typical Clements school story and a survival story; the main character becomes very interested in camping and the outdoors early on but doesn’t actually get lost until the last few chapters of the book. As is common with a Clements novel the main character (Mark, the only child of a famous Hollywood couple who moves to a small town mid-way through his 5th grade year) clashes with a teacher (the science teacher who is running the camping trip) but in the end they come to understand, and even like, each other.

I keep trying to decide if A Week in the Woods or Hatchet should be the survival read-aloud next year, but I can’t make up my mind. I’ll have to see what my students think after they read A Week in the Woods.