Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

With thrilling immediacy, the award winning novelist Gary Paulsen pulls us into the breathtaking drama of his own story. His life-changing adventure begins with sparkling days and moonlit nights spent running with his dogs in the Minnesota wilderness.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Paulsen, who has received Newbery Honors for three of his novels, is the best author of man-against-nature adventures writing today. Woodsong is an autobiographical celebration of his longtime love of dogsledding and sled dogs, a love that suffused the pages of his best novel, Dogsong. Woodsong is divided into two parts. In the first part, ``Running,'' Paulsen relates anecdote after anecdote about how his dogs and the frozen, wintery adventures he has had while sledding have taught him to be more human. The anecdotes run the gamut from hilarious to tragic, and truly sing with the wonder, violence and grace of the woods. The second part, ``Racing,'' the pellmell story of Paulsen's first Iditarod--a sled race across the Alaskan wilderness from downtown Anchorage to downtown Nome--burns with feverish intensity as one grueling day follows another. Like Paulsen's novels, Woodsong blends deep introspection with fast-paced action and succeeds admirably on both levels. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

An autobiographical book that gives through spare but vivid language a look at a man who thought, because he was a hunter and a trapper, that he knew about the outdoors. Instead, he discovered he knew very little until he opened himself to the realities of predators and prey, and to the lessons taught to him by the animals he encountered and the sled dogs he trained and raced. This is not a life story, with dates and names and achievements, but rather Paulsen's reflections on the peculiarities and surprises of nature. Some of the lessons are violent and painful, brought on by the natural instincts of wild animals or Paulsen's own mistakes; others are touching or humorous, and convey a sharp sense of observation and awareness of the various personality traits of the dogs he has raised and run. And some are unexplainable--mysteries of nature that would seem incredible if written in a work of fiction. The anecdotal style and rhythmic, sometimes abrupt sentence structure demand close attention, and the switch in the last third of the book to Paulsen's day-by-day account of the Iditarod is sudden, though expected. The Iditarod story is intensely personal, focusing on Paulsen's thoughts, actions, and hallucinations during those 17 days rather than presenting a comprehensive view of the race and the competitors. Both segments of the book generate wonder at the abilities of animals and should introduce fans of Paulsen's fiction to a different type of writing. --Susan Schuller, Milwaukee Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Paulsen writes about his fierce, beautiful experience with sleds and dogs, first in northern Minnesota where he lives and then in 17 grueling days with his 15-dog team in the Iditarod race. Despite occasional inflated messages about "life" and about "blood," the stories ring with truth. The language is stark as he describes big, near-mystical experiences in the snow and wind; he also shows a lightness of touch, a self-deprecating humor (even about his great vision quest); in fact, there are episodes of outright farce, both in his domestic barnyard and the Alaskan tundra. He's candid about the boredom and mundane detail (including "gastric distress" from gorging on moose chili) and about the wild hallucinations that come with sleep deprivation. The nature lore woven into the narrative is like a celebration of the "woods" (Paulsen's word for the environment): the grouse's eggs that lie cuddled in the nest; the bears hungry beyond caution; the goats whuffing and blowing snot; the high keening wail and whoop of the loon. And always there's the image of Paulsen sleeping in a tent at 35 below, warmed by the dogs jamming into the sides of his sleeping bag. The ending is subtle: not wanting to finish the race, barely able to speak to people anymore, he nearly turns the sled around to go back into the tundra; only his wife's shout breaks the spell. Like Jack London, Paulsen combines wild adventure and precise observation with intensely private discovery. We're moved by the story of the individual with his dogs and the elements--solitary, connected. Gr. 6-12. --Hazel Rochman

Horn Book Review

An autobiographical account of Paulsen's life in Minnesota and Alaska as he prepares his sled dogs and himself to race the grueling Iditarod. The lure of the wilderness is always a potent draw, and Paulsen evokes its mysteries as well as anyone has since Jack London. From HORN BOOK 1990, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

A three-time Newbery Honor winner tells--in a memoir that is even more immediate and compelling than his novels--about his intimate relationship with Minnesota's north woods and the dog team he trained for Alaska's Iditarod. Beginning with a violent natural incident (a doe killed by wolves) that spurred his own conversion from hunter and trapper to observing habitant of the forest, Paulsen draws a vivid picture of his wilderness life--where bears routinely help themselves to his dog's food and where his fiercely protective bantam adopts a nestful of quail chicks and then terrorizes the household for an entire summer. The incidents he recounts are marvelous. Built of concrete detail, often with a subtext of irony or mystery, they unite in a modest but telling self-portrait of a man who has learned by opening himself to nature--not to idyllic, sentimental nature, but to the harsh, bloody, life-giving real thing. Like nature, the dogs are uncontrollable: independent, wildly individual, yet loyal and dedicated to their task. It takes extraordinary flexibility, courage, and generosity to accept their difficult strengths and make them a team: Paulsen sees humor in their mischief and has learned (almost at the cost of his life) that rigid discipline is irrelevant, even dangerous. This wonderful book concludes with a mesmerizing, day-by-day account of Paulsen's first Iditarod--a thrilling, dangerous journey he was so reluctant to end that he almost turned back within sight of his goal. lt's almost as hard to come to the end of his journal. This may be Paulsen's best book yet: it should delight and enthrall almost any reader. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.