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A LIFE AS EXCITING AS FICTION

Gary Paulsen, three-time Newbery Honor author, is no stranger to adventure. He has flown off the back of a dogsled and down a frozen waterfall to near disaster, and waited for a giant bear to seal his fate with one slap of a claw. He has led a team of sled dogs toward the Alaskan Mountain Range in an Iditarod -- the grueling, 1,180-mile dogsled race -- hallucinating from lack of sleep, but he determined to finish.

Here, in vivid detail, Paulsen recounts several of the remarkable experiences that shaped his life and inspired his award-winning writing.

A School Library Journal Best Book

A Booklist Editors' Choice

Average Customer Rating:

IN TUNE WITH HIS TEAM AND THE ARCTIC

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Paulsen's choice of the word, SONG--see WOODSONG and DOGSONG--goes beyond the expected audible and musical implications, for it embodies man and animals' in-touch-ness with static and living aspects of the natural world. Less a cohesive story with a clearly defined plot and anticipated character development this book reveals the author's reflective observations of his own maturation--as a musher and as a human being. With gritty honesty Paulsen chronicles the painful and often humiliating earning curve which he experienced, thanks to his faithful team of huskies over decades in the Minnesota wilderness. Part I consists of the author's memories-fond and painful--of his cumulative years with dozens of dogs, the canine wisdom which he learned about their amazing personalities and dog sledding, not to mention lessons about Life itself. Part 2 relates in excruciating detail his actual 17-day ordeal (trial by Snow and Ice) running the famous arctic marathon: the Iditarod. Just to finish this endurance trail is a victory for both human and animal nature; they struggle for a thousand miles against extreme weather conditions and brutal terrain across which man and dogs are pitted against the harsh reality of Nature. Written in first-person narrative WOODSONG shares the author's intensely personal feelings with readers, as Paulsen combats the limitations of the body while celebrating the limitless urge of the spirit toward maturity and positive appreciation for the total environment.

English Teacher Loves Gary Paulsen

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I have taught reading and writing to East Los Angeles - Hollenbeck Middle School - children of immigrants for the past three years. When I introduced "Woodsong" to my teens, I was worried that they would not be able to relate to a middle aged white guy in the snow. Not only do my "Americans of Mexican descent" love Paulsen but they love his dogs and other creatures he encounters: Scarhead, Hawk, Cookie, Columbia, Olaf, Obeah, the young dogs who discover fire, the doe that escapes into Paulsen's campsite, and especially Storm. The story of Storm and his stick brings tears to the eyes of even the most macho 14 year olds. Reading this book and others by Paulsen (Dirk the Protector and Older Run) have turned my kids onto reading other books by Paulsen, Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, and Louis L'Amour. I love you Gary!!!!!!!

an awsome book from joey in buckley washington

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One big race This is the book by the name of Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. Most of the book takes place in Alaska at the Iditarod. A lot of work Gary Paulsen trained a lot for the Iditarod. When he's training a lot of humorous stuff happens, like when they come across a dead frozen deer. There were also a lot of weird things that happen, like a chipmunk-eating squirrel. In the Iditarod Paulsen endures freezing negative weather. There are rumors everywhere and some of them are pretty scary, somebody froze their eye out, someone drifted out to sea and so on. There are some funny parts too like when one of his dogs falls asleep while he's running So much detail! I liked the book a lot but the thing I liked the most about the book is that it had so much detail. The author uses so much detail that it fells like you in the sled watching it all happen. He put so much detail that you can feel the chill of fifty below weather, you can feel the pain of the crash and you can feel the frightfulness when he comes across a moose. An actual story The book is a true story about the author and when he was in the Iditarod. What makes the book so good is that the funny and creepy parts are true. It's also pretty sad because a couple of dogs die. Dog fans I would recommend this book to dog lovers. .

an awsome book from joey in buckley washington

Customer Rating:

One big race This is the book by the name of Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. Most of the book takes place in Alaska at the Iditarod. A lot of work Gary Paulsen trained a lot for the Iditarod. When he's training a lot of humorous stuff happens, like when they come across a dead frozen deer. There were also a lot of weird things that happen, like a chipmunk-eating squirrel. In the Iditarod Paulsen endures freezing negative weather. There are rumors everywhere and some of them are pretty scary, somebody froze their eye out, someone drifted out to sea and so on. There are some funny parts too like when one of his dogs falls asleep while he's running So much detail! I liked the book a lot but the thing I liked the most about the book is that it had so much detail. The author uses so much detail that it fells like you in the sled watching it all happen. He put so much detail that you can feel the chill of fifty below weather, you can feel the pain of the crash and you can feel the frightfulness when he comes across a moose. An actual story The book is a true story about the author and when he was in the Iditarod. What makes the book so good is that the funny and creepy parts are true. It's also pretty sad because a couple of dogs die. Dog fans I would recommend this book to dog lovers. .

One of Paulsens best!

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Woodsong By Gary Paulsen Woodsong is a story about the author's adventure in Alaska. He writes about running dogs and racing in the Iditarod. This story begins in Anchorage, Alaska in the 1980s. Paulsen runs the dogs which means hitching a dog team to a sled and taking them for a run. One time while running the dogs, they saw a glowing light in the woods. It seemed to be person walking in the dark with a lantern. Paulsen also thought it was a ghost. It turned out to be a dead tree with a glowing mushroom on it. He walked up to it and hit his head on the dead tree. He felt the glowing light and realized it was a glowing mushroom. On another adventure, he was running his dogs in a snow storm. Paulsen was headed for the edge of a cliff. He told the dog team to go straight and straight would take them off the edge of the cliff. Paulsen did not know because he was in a snow storm and he could not see. The dogs knew they were about to go off the cliff. They tried to turn away but Paulsen told them to go off the edge. They flew right off the edge of the cliff. The sled and some of the dogs fell on him. He had a broken rib. He got the dogs and the sled off of him and got the sled in to shape. He got on the sled and the dogs knew the way and pulled him home. The last part of the book is about the Iditarod race. The Iditarod is an annual dog sled race in Alaska, where mushers and teams of dogs cover about 1,150 miles in eight to fifteen days. Paulsen had a long and hard race but he finished in about thirteen days. I would recommend this book to someone who is a adventure seeker. I liked it because it was a true story.