"Gary Paulsen: A Real-Life Reader Biography" is a brief, informative book that gives a solid outline (emphasis on 'outline') of the famous author's life.

It isn't very long and there aren't any pictures, but that's not entirely unexpected in a book meant for middle-graders. And it is for middle-graders as there's plenty of dark moments in Gary's life: excessive drinking by many people, child abandonment, as well as multiple sad marriages that didn't work.

The book would have gotten a solid 4-Stars except for the immature sentence structure used by the author. In my opinion the book read more like one targeted for early elementary aged children, than one for young adults.

THE SKINNY:::
Despite the flaws, this is a informative book about Gary Paulsen that's worth reading. The author frequently ties Gary's real life experiences with incidents from his books which is the sort of thing fan's like myself appreciate.

Pam T~
mom/blogger
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