My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is a marvelous and compelling book. Usually when I read books, it's because I have to, but when I started to read this book, I didn't want to put it down. It started where a boy is trapped inside a hole that he dug out in a tree trunk, and he explains what he is doing and why. Then he starts from the beginning of his story.

The main character, Sam Gribley, is sick and tired of living in a crowded New York City apartment and has been talking about running away for a long time now, but no one takes his plans seriously.

Sam decides to run away to the mountains and forge a new life of his own. All he has to survive is a small knife, a ball of cord, flint, and some steel. Sam has only these few things until he snatches a baby falcon right out of its own nest. Sam names the falcon Frightful and trains her to hunt and bring food back for him. Do Sam and Frightful survive or does Sam get arrested for obtaining a falcon underage and without a license.

This Newberry Honor award-winning book is an amazing story of a young 12-or 13-year old boy who wants a new and quiet life of his own. If you like adventures and real life stories, you should definitely read this book. I guarantee you won't want to put it down, and once you finish it you will want to read the two sequels – On the Far Side of the Mountain and Frightful's Mountain.

Jean Craighead George, the author of this book and many other books such as-Charlie's Raven, Julie, Julie of the Wolves, and Julies Wolf Pack, loves to right about nature, and with her books she tries to inspire other people who love nature to join the quest to save it and all the animals in it.