My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George

I wrote about this interesting book for children here.

This morning I ordered a hardcover copy on Amazon for about $16.00.

I don't normally buy books new - unless I can't find it anywhere else and it's a great book. And I don't normally pay $16.00 for a book for my kids - but it was a hardcover and a favorite book and 3 books in one.

This afternoon I was at a huge library book sale and found a hardcover copy of "My Side of the Mountain". Actually I found NUMEROUS copies of "My Side of the Mountain". I bought more than one :) The sale was $5 for all the books you can fit in a grocery store plastic bag. My kind of sale.

Now it isn't the trilogy of books - just the first book in the series - but usually the first book is the best anyway.

Needless to say, when I got home I canceled the book I ordered for $16.00 from Amazon. The price of that one book was more than I paid for 3 bags STUFFED with books. My dh saw all my books and said "just leave them in 4 bags". But I knew I could fit them all into 3 bags :) and I did!

My Side of the Mountain

While wandering around the library last week I came across a book, actually 3 books in 1, that sounded interesting. The trilogy was "My Side of the Mountain", "On the Far Side of the Mountain," and "Frightful's Mountain", by Jean Craighead George.

I've been reading the first story, "My Side of the Mountain" in 1-hour or so increments to the kids and they have LOVED it. An added bonus for me, the reader of this lengthy book is that I also found it interesting.

Dd at least one time went off with the book to read some on her own, and I sometimes felt like doing that too. But I knew it would be unpleasant to have to re-read those portions that I had already read - so I controlled myself.

I should have known we would like the book b/c we found out the author also wrote "Tarantula in My Purse" - a book we read aloud about a year or two ago...also enjoyed by my dd.

I was (and still am) an avid reader - but somehow I missed reading this book in my youth.

It is the story of a young teenage boy, Sam, who runs away from home in New York to live on some land owned by his great-great grandfather in the Catskills Mountains. Sam lives off the land - all he brought with him was a penknife, $40, some string, an ax and flint and steel.

He finds and trains a baby falcon to hunt for food. He gathers wild plants/nuts...eats turtles, fish and wild game.

The book describes in detail his life during that period...the way he makes his shelter and survives for over a year.

This book seems like a winner for kids of all ages...both of my children - girl almost 9 and boy almost 6 enjoyed this book.

We found out that our library has "My Side of the Mountain" on video, so now that we are finished the first book, we've reserved the video. We can't wait to see the video!