Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood

Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood
Gary Paulsen
FSG, 2021
357 pages
Grades 7-Up
Autobiography/Memoir

Famed middle-grade author, Gary Paulsen, best known for his adventure books, pens a thoughtful memoir of his childhood, exploring the influences that grew him into the great author he became. The story starts as five-year-old Gary (referred to as "the boy") travels on a solo train journey during WWII to live with relatives on a northern farm. Those days are remembered fondly, a bright light in a childhood filled with darkness. His mother takes him away and they travel overseas to meet his military father, eventually ending up back in the northern United States. The boy grows up in dingy apartments, neglected and impoverished, while his parents drank and fought. He escapes to the woods to fish and live in peace. When the weather gets too cold to be outside, the boy wanders into the public library to warm. It is here that a kind librarian leads him to books and-eventually-writing. After many stints running away and failed attempts at independence, the boy tries different jobs, eventually landing in the military. All of his experiences combine to turn the boy into the man in which Paulsen becomes, all of which comes full circle at the end as he discovers an old notebook and jumps back into what he does best-writing.

This is a beautifully written book, crafted by Paulsen right before his 2021 death. It was almost as if he saw it coming and wanted to world to know his story before he left this world. Writing in the third person, Paulsen always refers to himself as "the boy", making the story feel more like fiction. At times the reminiscences feel like a surreal, hazy dream as time jumps and certain important events are highlighted. My favorite part of the book was, of course, when the boy walks into the library and the kind librarian basically saves his life. It was just the inspiration I needed to see to get me through these frustrating pandemic times. This book is said to target his usual audience (fourth-sixth grade), but it really is for teenagers or adults. There is alcoholism, child neglect, sexual behavior, language and violence, making it for an older mature audience. Even then, I don't know that teen readers will get it. I think that the real audience is his adult fans, who now get a glimpse at the boy Paulsen was and what turned him into the extraordinary writer and man he became.