Henry+David+Thoreau

=Walden Resources:=

[|www.thoreausociety.org] Many resources about Thoreau. His writings are also available on this site.

[|www.walden.org] This site has curriculum developed using Thoreau and Transcendentalism as well as many other ideas. []

[|www.jstor.org] This site has many contemporary takes on "Walden."

[|www.savingtheearth.net] Plethora of resources on "Walden."

[] Very good clip regarding current civil disobedience

[] The "Walden" you did not know. Critiques/opinions on "Walden."

[] A blog that discusses how "Walden" relates to today's society.

=The respect and joy in discovering the harmony in nature theme found in Henry David Thoreau's Walden are also found in the independent reading options below:=

Paulsen, Gary. //Caught by the Sea: My Life on Boats.// The Story starts out with Gary Paulsen leaving the army. Gary decides to try something new with his life. Since the sea has saved his life once, he decided to try sailing. Gary was looking around for a sail boat to buy when he found a place with a drunken man sleeping outside. The man try to sell Gary this cruddy boat, never buy from a drunken man. Then Gary went to go try elsewhere. After a long time of searching, he found a sail boat in good condition. It was owned by a man who had it parked in his driveway. Now Gary was going to try to sail, but he doesn’t know how. His first trip was going off the coast of California, after sleeping it for a while. Then off Gary went without a clue to what he was doing. Not long after the start, a storm came. He was thrashed, water went everywhere and lighting struck around him. After the storm let out, he was lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He tried to find his way back home without sleep. Since his boat couldn’t go more than five knots, it was taking a long time to get back. He fell asleep at the wheel. After that happened, he got really lost. To Gary’s luck, an English lady happened to be sailing as well. Gary learned a lot from her and he was brought home. Many years then went by and Gary got better and better. He owned a lot of boats ones fast and ones strong. He has gone to Hawaii and Alaska all starting at California. One of his strongest boats got caught in a storm and once again, Gary found himself lost. But with his new experience, he was able to find his way back. Gary now wants to travel around Cape Horn. He might have already done it. He is a true sailor.

Hobbs, Will. //Downriver.// A group of juvenile delinquents decide to white-water raft down the Grand Canyon in a quest for adventure, freedom, and fun. The rapids grow increasingly more dangerous and their leader fails them. Their very lives become endangered as a suspenseful and absorbing plot unfolds.

Farmer, Nancy. //A Girl Named Disaster.//
 * Summary:** Farmer’s book offers a strong sense of place and character in this modern day South African tale of adventure and survival. Fourteen-year-old Nhamo is an orphan living in a traditional Shona African village in Mozambique. Nhamo is overworked by her cruel aunt, and the village regards her warily because of her no account father who abandoned his family for Zimbabwe. After Nhamo encounters leopard spirits and the village falls victim to plague, Nhamo and her family seek out the help of a Muvuki, a witch doctor. This charlatan declares that Nhamo must be married to a cruel older man to appease a restless ghost. Confronted with this life sentence, Nhamo’s only loving family member, her grandmother, commands her to flee. Thus, her tale of survival begins. Alone in a canoe with only a small supply of food, a broken knife, and a magazine photograph that represents her mother, her own stories must keep her company. Nhamo battles wild animals and learns valuable survival lessons as she struggles to reach Zimbabwe and her father. Her extreme isolation leads to communications with the spirit world and a reoccurring mystical realism throughout the novel. After many harrowing near death experiences, Nhamo achieves her goal of reaching her father’s family. As she acclimates to westernized society, she learns that luxury living does not ensure belonging. This novel transports the reader to a new way of living through embedded language, interwoven traditional folktales, and intermixed customs and values. Some readers, however, may find the pacing slow and the intricate plot line more challenge than pleasure.

Paulsen, Gary. //The Island.// The Island is the story of a crucial summer in the life of fifteen-year-old Wil Neuton. Uprooted from city, school, and friends when his father accepts a job in rural Wisconsin, Wil becomes increasingly self-absorbed. His withdrawal is aided by an island which he finds in the middle of a nearby lake, and he begins to spend his days there. Eventually he stays through the night and remains for days on the island, wondering if he will ever go home. To the island comes a parade of visitors: his recent friend Susan, his newfound enemy Ray Bunner, his parents, a reporter, a counselor, and a television news crew. To protect himself, Wil must fend them all off: Susan with kind words, Ray with his fists, his parents with determination,.....

Hobbs, Will. //The Maze.// “The Maze” by Will Hobbs is the story of Rick Walker, a desperate fourteen year old orphan on the run after breaking out of a youth detention center. Rick Walker finds himself lost in the stark desert canyons of Utah, where he finds the camp of Lon Peregrino, a bird biologist who is working to reintroduce California Condors in the wild.In the process of working with the fledgling condors and exploring the stark canyon landscapes Rick comes to learn more about himself and realize that running away from his problems will not solve them. “The Maze” is an excellent book about personal growth and development.I would recommend reading it both for its involving action and its worthwhile message.

Plum-Ucci, Carol. //The She.// After his parents are lost at sea, Evan Barrett and his older brother leave their seaside home in West Hook to escape bad memories, but years later even worse questions emerge when Evan is asked to help a fellow student deal with another sea-related tragedy.

Hobbs, Will. //Wild Man Island.// Fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway is with his mother on a sea kayak trip off the coast of Alaska. After leaving by himself on a personal pilgrimage to the site of his archeologist father's death, Andy gets caught in a storm and ends up being marooned on Admiralty Island. He soon discovers that he is not alone but is being observed by a man living on the island hoping to avoid detection. The adventure is driven by secrets only the wild man--who befriends Andy--knows and others that Andy discovers. Andy's father was an archeologist who was doing research on this island when he was accidentally killed. The Wild Man that Andy discovers and gets to know was also trained as an archeologist, and he continues to explore the island as he tries to live truly back to nature. Andy helps the man initially avoid discovery from the wild life managers until a fair solution can be found to fulfill the Wild Man's and Andy's wishes. Andy learns and, therefore, teaches readers a lot about the theoretical origin of the first Americans and when they arrived.

Paulsen, Gary. //Woodsong.// The Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race is a famous race held each year between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska. However the Iditarod is more than a race. It is over one thousand miles of cold and wind and snow and ice. It is days and nights where sleep deprivation causes hallucinations that can be worse than the most terrible nightmare. But above all it is an endurance test of a person and a team of dogs. Woodsong is, in part, a day-by-day account of Paulsen's running the Iditarod. Although Paulsen finished forty-second in a field of seventy-three mushers on his first try, this is not a book about competing in a race. It is the story of a man learning about himself, his dogs, and the wilderness; and it is the story of how the man changed.....