My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead GeorgeGenre: Adventure/A.R. 5.2
Newbery Honor Book
With no malice or ill feelings toward his family, just a calling to the woods, Sam runs away from his city apartment home to live in the Catskill Mountains. He is going in search of his grandfather's abandoned farm. I'm happy to say that a kind librarian in town helps him locate the needed information in books and even draws maps to help him find the place. Leaving four sisters and four brothers behind, Sam is surprisingly not very lonely. He is also incredibly resourceful and lucky as he learns to build a home out of a tree, scout for food, and make friends of various woodland animals that help him by bringing food and alerting him to changing weather conditions in the mountains. Sam also maintains sporadic contact with humans as they come on hikes, hunts, and other exploration trips. Eventually, he becomes known in town as the wild boy that lives on nuts in the woods.
Upon learning that the publisher had first declined to publish this book, the author reported thinking "better to run to the woods than the city." You'll have to read it yourself to see if you agree.
