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

Hardy Boys Series

The Hardy Boys is a detective series written by several authors, (all by the pen
name of Franklin W. Dixon). In the original series, there were 58 books, but now there are other small series too. The 2 Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe are sons of Fenton Hardy, a famous detective. They are very good sleuths themselves, and sometimes run into mysteries, (or are asked for help from one of their dad's clients).

Unlike Sherlock Holmes  and 

, Frank and Joe use much less deduction, and the books are much more adventure-filled. For instance, many times, the book starts with the boys following a suspicious character and becoming mixed up in some complicated mystery. Many times, they get captured, and then escape. Also, another difference from the other books is that the Hardy Boys have to follow many leads, and end up with many dead ends, whereas in Sherlock Holmes and Poirot, they solve their mysteries on their first try and are sure about most things they do.

Some of my favorite books are: The House on the Cliff, The Mark on the Door, The Ghost at Skeleton Rock, The mystery at Devil's Paw, The mystery of the Chinese Junk, The Viking Symbol Mystery, and The Jungle Pyramid.

I really like the Hardy Boys because it has more adventure and more suspense. They also do a lot more traveling than Sherlock Holmes, or Poirot would. It is also sometimes funny, especially when they talk about Chet Morton, (a close friend of the Hardys'). Finally, it is very interesting how many of their cases get tied up with some of their dad's cases. I really enjoy this series and suggest you give it a try.  (You can start with any of the books, as they aren't really connected to each other).

My rating: 8+