76 pages 2 hours read

Gary Paulsen

Brian's Winter

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996

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Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Fall”

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Rain comes and falls steadily for seven days. Unprepared for the seemingly unending rain, Brian must go out and scavenge for dry wood constantly just to keep the fire going. Brian also goes without food for several days. When it’s still raining on the seventh day, Brian decides he can take it no longer, and goes out into the rain. Surprisingly, game abounds more in the rain than in dry weather, and Brian has a successful hunt. The rain finally stops during the night, and in the morning, the air is cold and the edge of the lake begins to freeze.

Now that he’s had a taste of the rain and cold, Brian knows he has plenty of work to do to prepare for winter. He makes a small hole in the roof of his shelter, so he’ll be able to have a fire inside and allow the smoke out. He then packs the wall of the shelter with mud, sticks, and leaves to winterize it, copying what he’s seen beavers do to make a watertight dam.

The next day, he hunts for stones with which to make arrowheads, and eventually remembers that the rock in the wall of his shelter is flint.

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