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Written and illustrated by: Jean Craighead George Cover Art by: Michael Garland Published by: Scholastic Inc. Date Publication: 1988. Setting. Where and when the story takes place The story took place in the present day. It began in Sam Gribley’s apartment in New York. New York was a
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Written and illustrated by: Jean Craighead George Cover Art by: Michael Garland Published by: Scholastic Inc. Date Publication: 1988
Setting Where and when the story takes place The story took place in the present day. It began in Sam Gribley’s apartment in New York. New York was a very noisy city with bright lights and friendly snowstorms. Sam’s apartment was very bright and warm. The house contained a family of eleven people: father, mother, four sisters, four brothers, and Sam. Sam wasn’t happy about the house, so one day in May he decided to run away. Then the story went on in Bill’s house where Sam stayed for his first night. The house was in the woods. It was warm and cozy with smoke coming out of the chimney and lights in the windows. There was a wooden stove in the kitchen. The main place in the story was the Catskill Mountains where Sam chose to live permanently. Sam’s family moved there after a year. It was a silent and non-crowded place. Sam’s great grandfather’s farm was on the mountain. Sam built a tree house from a tree on that farm. He furnished his tree house with a wooden desk and a hammock bed.
Characters • Sam Gribley • Frightful • Bando
Sam Gribley Sam is the main character in the story. Sam is a member of the Gribley family. He has dark brown hair and black eyes. Sam looks ruddy and is in excellent health. He has a falcon as a pet. Sam is very adventurous. He is an independent boy who is a great inventor. Sam is also determined and strong. Sam is tired of living in the crowded city.
Frightful Frightful is my favourite character. Frightful is Sam’s falcon. She has two gray eyes in a white stroobly head. Frightful has a hot fuzzy body with nubby feathers. She has sharp talons. Her feathers smell dusty and sweet. Frightful is very gentle. She is a great hunter because she flies with extreme speed. Frogs are one of Frightful’s favourite meals.
Bando Bando is the character I detest the most. He promises one thing and does another. He tells Sam he will not tell anyone where Sam is, but then he told newspaper reporters where Sam was. Bando is an adult. He is a college English teacher who got lost in the woods. He has blue eyes. His eyebrows gather together when he is concerned. Bando likes to bring news articles to Sam about him being known as the wild guy.
Synopsis My Side of the Mountain is about an eleven year old boy named Sam Gribley. He lived in a New York apartment. Sam thought New York was too crowded, so he ran away to the Catskill Mountains. He was going to live off the land. He left New York with only a penknife, a ball of cord, an ax, $40, and some flint and steel, so he had to rely on natural resources. The first day in the woods, he stayed at Bill’s house where Bill cooked a lot of food for him. In the days following, he found a tree in the Gribley’s farm. He hollowed out a room in the hemlock tree and furnished it. A few days later, he got a baby falcon and raised it. He named it Frightful and trained it to be a hunter and companion. As the days wore on, Sam learned how to make more and more furniture and found a lot of food to hunt like rabbits, deer, fish, nuts, and turtles. Sam ate animal body parts and used their hides. He began to learn how to survive in the woods. Sam soon found that living alone in the woods was not easy, but he still liked it Everyday, he interacted with animals. After a few months of doing the same things, Sam got bored. Just as he was getting lonely, Sam met Bando who was lost in the woods. Sam cooked for him and they became good friends. Bando kept Sam company through August. When winter was quickly approaching, Sam went out hunting for extra food, so he and Frightful wouldn’t starve. Sam also made a door to keep the cold from going into his tree house. He even had to make some clothing out of deer hide. Winter was very boring because he had to stay in his tree house, so he was waiting for Bando to come again around Christmas time. Sam didn’t know that he was actually in for a very joyful Christmas because his dad came to visit him as well. Now he had to make another tree house due to his load of visitors. After that, a boy named Matt came. He worked for a newspaper. He knew Sam was the “wild boy”. Matt stayed with Sam for a while. Now the people knew that the wild boy was real, not a rumour. From that day on, Sam knew he could no longer live in peace and silence because there were going to be many people coming to visit him and probably take him back to New York. A year later, Sam’s whole family moved to live with him in the woods.
Opinions My Side of the Mountain is realistic fiction. At first, I thought this book wasn’t going to be good, but it ended up being super. It is very descriptive and entertaining. I think the author would have to have a lot of imagination to write a story so interesting and one that would capture my attention. For example, Sam managed to connect the fireplace that he made to the clay chimney. It deserved the Newberry Award. This book gave me a whole new appreciation for wilderness. It taught me how to survive in the woods. I have learned a lesson that everybody can accomplish his/her goals if he/she never gives up. I recommend this book to readers ages 10 and up because kids younger than that probably can’t understand why Sam ran away and how he survived. I also recommend this book to readers who like adventure or nature books. I would give this book five stars. I plan to read the whole series.
Miscellaneous The other books written by Jean Craighead George: • There’s an Owl in the Shower • Julie of the Wolves • Fire Storm • On Day in the Woods • Luck • On the Far Side of the Mountain • Cry of the Crow • The Wounded Wolf • One Day in the Desert • Snow Bear • Spring Comes to the Ocean • One Day in the Alpine Tundra The titles of other books similar to My Side of the Mountain: • Frightful’s Mountain • The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler • Maniac Magee • Tuck Everlasting
About the Author Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in a family of naturalists. Jean George has centered her life around writing and nature. She attended Pennsylvania State University, graduating with degrees in English and science. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps and a reporter for The Washington Post. Ms. George has written over sixty books. The mother of three children, Jean George is a grandmother who has joyfully read to her grandchildren since the time they were born. Over the years Jean George has kept one hundred and seventy-three pets, not including dogs and cats, in her home in Chappaqua, New York. Most of these wild animals depart in autumn when the sun changes their behavior and they feel the urge to migrate or go off alone. While they are with her, however, they become characters in my books, articles, and stories.
