MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN

My Side of The Mountain - Jean Craighead George

What a great book. Just the kind of thing I use to love. I went through this phase when I was about twelve or thirteen when I read every book I could find on surviving in the woods, surviving a desert island, that kind of story. Books like Lost In The Barrens, Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, The Cay, Island of the Blue Dolphins. I wonder how I missed My Side Of The Mountain?

I think it may have been a case of judging a book by it's cover. I mean this cover looks kind of dorky...

My Side Of The Mountain - book cover not my style

The mullet haired kid and the indistinct hawk. Not something that would have appealed to me. I only found it now b/c I'm going through thrift store books looking for something age appropriate for my kids...and I've kind of learned to not judge a book by it's cover. Now people, that's a whole other story...

Not sure why I wouldn't have picked up this book when I was in my stranded-on-a-deserted-island phase b/c if you look at my copy of Lost In The Barrens it's almost as cheesy. Lost in the Barrens is my favourite book in this genre, my high bar standard book, if you may.

Lost In The Barrens - my fav book

Cover aside, this book was just like Lost In The Barrens, Robinson Crusoe, etc. A young boy runs away to the forest and attempts to survive. He has many trials and tribulations, many errors, and many successes. You learn a lot about what you can eat, where you can build a shelter, how to dry food. The thing about this book that I really enjoyed was the relationship the boy develops with the local wildlife. He trains a falcon, befriends a racoon, and has a love/hate thing going on with a local weasel. He ends up surviving, or should I say thriving, after a year and then the books ends with a wild turn...which I didn't really like, but I could see it making way for an easy second novel. His large family finds him and decides to live with him. Bad ending, bad, bad, ending. But, I kind of want to see what happens in the next book. What he can teach his city slicker sisters and brothers?

Anyway, add this book to your collection of young boys living in the wilderness collection.