My Side of the Mountain (Jean George) **** as good as when I was a kid

[livingbyfiction]

I brought My Side of the Mountain to Singapore, and I'm so glad I did.  On returning to my hotel after a day pumped full of stress, this book was detox.  Sam's adventures purge those nasty stress hormones and gear the brain down toward the dreamless.  You've probably read it.  It's as good now as it was then.

Sam Gribley is a 12-year-old boy in New

Comments

[froggandie]

Did you ever read Hatchet?

That was my favorite in 4th grade or so, in a similar vein.

[livingbyfiction]

Read both, liked My Side of the Mountain better. Sam chooses to head for the wilderness. Also, Jean George is a woman, so her books are less testosterone-infused than Gary Paulsen's.

[lesliesage]

I read and loved both; My Side of the Mountain still resonates more strongly since it was my first 4th grade introduction to human v nature, to coming-of-age lit. I spent lots of time preparing to kill squirrels with slings, cook turtle soup, etc. Hatchet wasn't assigned reading, so I read it later. Then I read the sequels of both: The Other Side of the Mountain and The River, and the latter definitely delivered. Gary Paulsen has a special place in my heart. His Winterdance was the first non-fiction book I ever picked up (about an >1000 mile sled dog race in Alaska), and it was the first time I thought about reading an author instead of reading a book. My best friend in 4th grade (special school) introduced me to this, and I found the whole enterprise to be highly sophisticated. My Side captured my heart, but Paulsen's a crazy outdoorsman and the realism came through in a different way.

[livingbyfiction]

Oh, cuddles for our 10-year-old selves. Madeleine L'Engle in third grade was the first time I read an author and not a book. Before her, in fact, I used to wonder why the teachers would always announce some random name after the title of the book.

I was such an obsessive L'Engle fangirl that I read most of her adult books, too, which are totally not appropriate for children. That lady has had a life, and she's still going.