My Side of the Mountain Summary
Sam Gribley, a 13 year old boy living in NY, is tired of the entire ruckus happening. He runs away to his grandfather’s farm in the Catskills Mountains, and is determined to survive on his own or die trying. He has help from people to get to the farm, and the only things with him are a knife, ball, a hatchet, 40 dollars he earned from selling newspapers in the busy streets of New York, and last of all, flint and steel. When he finally gets to the Catskill Mountains, he has to eat and make a home. He catches a fish, but can not create a fire. He skips dinner and goes to bed. The next morning, after sleeping in the wilderness, he marks the location of the trees and food. He then burns a hole into a large tree to make a shelter. Afterwards, Sam is truly starving, so he makes himself a fire and cooks the fish he caught. When summer is passing, he learns how to survive, and is now used to how things are. He makes his clothing, bed, and catches meals with help from his peregrine falcon, Frightful. Frightful wasn’t much of a hunter, but when Sam trains her, she becomes a reliable pet. Sam also befriends a weasel, which he gives the name The Baron, and a friendly raccoon named Jessie Coon James.
Time passes and people start to notice the living presence in the forest. He has many visitors and one of them is Bando, a professor who got lost in the forest. Bando is nice, and teaches Sam, while Sam teaches Bando. Bando leaves, and another visitor comes. This time it’s a reporter. He wanted to get something from the ‘mysterious boy’ living in the forest with no supervision. When Sam tells lies, he figures out that Sam is the one living in the forest and is about to publish that, unless Sam lets him come again near April. Sam agrees. The reporter boy comes then goes. He has lots and lots of visitors, but the most exciting visitor is his dad. When Sam left for months, his dad had been worried, and had finally come to see the boy. The visitors come back, and then leave, and it goes like that for some time, until one day, his dad comes with the whole entire family! They had decided that they would live with him until he is 18. Then he would be free to do whatever he wanted.