I had dim memories of this book from grade school, and the outdoor theme brought me back to it. The premise is simple: a boy runs away from his home in New York city to survive in the wilderness, and succeeds.
I wasn’t disappointed. This is one of those books written for kids that has plenty of insight for adults too, which is probably what keeps it around. It is getting dated, but in a good way, marking the way our cultural perception of wilderness is changing.
2 responses to “Book: My Side of the Mountain / Jean Craighead George”
Ooo, yeah. I have very vivid memories of this book from when I was young. I remember distinctly wondering why the visiting hunter-dude called the kid “Thoreau,” or something to that effect. A few years later I read Walden pond and I remember a light going “ding!” It all made sense…
We read “My Side of the Mountain” and “Hatchet” one right after the other, and I remember talking about why one boy would enjoy his time outside and the other would suffer so much. Why is one wilderness so accommodating and the other so spiteful? And do girls ever go outside?
We didn’t read Hatchet, maybe I’ll have to continue my grade school reading curriculum…