Monday, September 2, 2013

My Side of the Mountain trilogy

This is a series written by Jean Craighead George and is about a boy from New York named Sam Gribley, who wants to live and survive in the wilderness of the Catskills.

The first book, My Side of the Mountain, is about how Sam survives by living on wild berries, nuts, vegetables, animals, and many other things. He also has many animal friends, the closest of all being Frightful, a peregrine falcon who he raised since she was just  a few days old. He also makes a few human friends.

In the second book, On the Far Side of the Mountain, his family after visiting him, leaves, but Alice his younger decides to stay. She gets used to life in the wilderness very quickly. One day, a conservation officer takes Frightful away from Sam, and a few days later, Alice decides to leave Sam's mountain. Sam(along with his friend Bando, a teacher) spends the whole book looking for Alice. 

In the third book, Frightful's Mountain, Frightful, (who became free at he end of the previous book) tries to live like a regular peregrine, but finds it very hard since she almost depends on Sam. The book follows her as she tries to adjust to everything.

This was a great series, as it is very interesting to see the way Sam survives, like what kind of shelter he had, all the foods he made, and many other things. There are also a lot of things in the third book about protecting endangered animals, and how much of difference it makes when people help. Sam also makes some very cool things in the wild. 

These include:
  • A house made from a burned out tree, (like native americans made dugout canoes)
  • An oven
  • A grill
  • Some furniture, such as a bed, a chair, and a table
  • A plumbing mill(built with Alice)
  • A huge watermill(built with many friends
All together, it was a very interesting series, and a very good read. I probably liked the first book the best though. 

Rating: 8 out of 10