My Side Of The Mountain
My Side of the Mountain: Living Alone in the Woods
A coming of age story about a boy who goes to the woods of upstate New York to live on his own for a year. He lives in a hollow tree, eats only what he can trap, fish or gather. Though he has some survival skills when he starts out he soon discovers that a trip to the public library is necessary.
This book was written for all those children who dream about what it would be like to run away, who believe that it is possible to make it on their own in the wild.
With confidence in himself and strength of will he lives for an entire year alone in the woods, the dream of most teens.
My Side Of The Mountain
My Side of the Mountain is one of the first books I remember reading as a child. Reading this book made me feel powerful. I made me feel that I was in control of my life and that I too could survive if I decided to go out into the woods on my own. All I needed was a few more survival skills.
My sister and I tried out many of the techniques that Sam Gribley mentions in My Side of the Mountain. I remember trying to make a rabbit snare. We spent hours and days trying to find a path in the grass where rabbits run. When we couldn't find that we decided to just try making the snare in preparation for the day that we found the rabbit run.
Time went on. We tried out many of Sam's ideas. We learned a lot about the woods and fields near our home. We never actually stayed out overnight. When we were tired, home always seemed the best place to find a bed and hot food but we always knew that someday we could run away like Sam Gribley in My Side of the Mountain.
Sam must rely on his ingenuity and the resources of the great outdoors to survive.
Do you have the skills to successfully run away? Could you make it on your own?
On a scale of 1-7, what did you REALLY think?
The best line ever:
Alone on the mountain, Sam learns about courage, danger, and the true meaning of companionship, and he captures it all in his journal.
While reading about Sam Gribley and his experiences living in the woods you may start to feel the urge to get to know nature, hiking, fishing and camping the way Sam did. The following are my recommendations for wintertime reading while preparing for a summer in the woods.
Reconnecting with My Side of the Mountain
Writer Steve Hendrix loved the book, "My Side of the Mountain" so much that he read it over and over again, imaging himself as the main character, Sam, living in a hollow tree in the middle of the Catskills. On the fiftieth anniversary of the publishing of the boo, Steve decided to follow the route Sam Gribley took and to camp in the same spot in upstate New York.
His first step was to ask help from Author, Jean Craighead George.
- Post Magazine: Recreating 'My Side of the Mountain' - washingtonpost.com
Author Jean Craighead George helped kids discover nature with her celebrated young adult novel "My Side of the Mountain," in which Sam Gribley runs away to live in the woods. In the year of its 50th anniversary, reporter Steve Hendrix sought to recre
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Available on Amazon
Jean Craighead George, the author of My Side of the Mountain, grew up with wild animals. Her parents were etymologists and her two brothers were the first to film grizzley bears. The Tarantula in My Purse is her autobiography which hilariously describes a life surrounded by wild animals treated as pets. It is another must read.
- Jean Craighead George's official site
Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible pla
Postscript of utmost importance
If you buy any of the books recommended above, this page automatically makes a donation to the incredible nonprofit, Donors Choose, which helps provide classrooms and students in need with resources that our public schools often lack.
Open your child's eyes to the possibilities of imagination. Give him a copy of My Side of the Mountain and let him walk in Sam Gribley's footsteps as generations of children have for generations. Help her learn to see herself confidently sleeping in the woods and providing shelter, warmth and food for herself even in the wilderness. A book, like My Side of the Mountain, can be the key to opening a world of imagination...
Come write about your experiences camping in the mountains on Wizzley, a fun and easy place to express your opinion:
