My Side of the Mountain is a beautifully written book by jean Craighead George that is about a teenage boy, Sam Gribley, who decides to run away from his home in New York City to live in the Catskill Mountains. The book is told both through the eyes of Sam and from various journal entries he writes during his time in the woods.
Sam begins his journey by leaving New York with nothing but a few simple implements and $40. During his first night in the woods he realizes that he is incredibly unprepared for a life outdoors and the next day he walks to the nearest town to find some books about wilderness survival. There he meets reoccurring character Ms. Turner, a librarian who helps Sam prepare to live in the woods.
Sam decides to make his home in a tree and painstakingly hollows out a huge hemlock. He learns how to create traps to capture food and discovers which plants are edible. As the plot moves forward, Sam gradually learns how to survive in the Catskills with the help of Frightful, a peregrine falcon he captured and trained to catch food for him. He becomes close friends with numerous animals including Frightful, Baron Weasel (a weasel who often creates trouble for him) and Jessie Coon James (a fat, lazy raccoon who befriends him).
Later in the book Sam's ingenuity shines as he creates a jacket, pants, moccasins, and fur-lined underwear from deer and rabbit fur, but he also realizes that he is getting lonely. He meets a college English teacher whom he calls Bando and they become fast friends for the summer. When the school year starts and Bando has to leave Sam is content but soon he starts to miss human contact again. He walks into town and is surprised to discover how much of an outsider he has become.
Towards the end of the novel Sam meets a boy named Matt and a rogue named Tom, and his dad comes to visit. Sam is incredibly happy and stays in his new home for the rest of the winter with success despite the isolation, but come spring he comes to the realization that he cannot live in the woods together. His dad returns with the rest of his family as well as reporters and photographers. As much as Sam wants to run away and continue living off the land, he knows that going back to society is the best thing for him to do so he accepts his fate.
Throughout the novel Sam learned about himself and grew from a rebellious boy into a grounded young man who was ready to rejoin the real world.
