Brief Summary Of The Red Plane Crash

The book begins with Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old boy from New York City, in a small plane on his way to visit his father in Canada for the summer. His parents got divorced, which has shaken him up, mostly because of the Secret that he keeps: he saw his mother with another man while his parents were still married. In the middle of the flight the pilot has a heart attack and dies, and Brian is alone; he tries to steer the plane for a little while but has no clue where he is and cannot get in contact with the ground. When the plane finally runs out of fuel, he makes a crash-landing in the middle of the forest beside a remote lake. Brian survives the crash and, still trying to piece together what has happened to him, begins the long struggle for survival until he is rescued. The first few days are a blur as he recovers from the crash and tries to get his bearings. He remembers the motivational words an old teacher once said to him and decides to make the
He first finds a patch of strange cherries, but eating too many of them makes him very sick. He then finds a raspberry bush and uses this as his first food source. He makes a crude shelter in a hollowed out part of a rock outcropping beside the lake; however, on his first night in the shelter a porcupine sneaks in, tries to eat his raspberries, and then sticks him with its quills. Frustrated and hurt, Brian reminds himself that he will not get anywhere by continuing to feel sorry for himself. He discovers how to make fire by striking the hatchet against the stone and allowing the sparks to catch on a small nest of kindling. This fire gives him hope. The following day he finds a nest of snapping turtle eggs to use as an additional food source. He constantly gathers wood to keep his fire going, and when he is not gathering wood, he is gathering berries to eat. He begins to see the world differently, his thoughts, hearing, and vision in tune with the world around