On the Far Side of the Mountain

           I recently revisited one of my favorite books from sixth grade- On the Far Side of the Mountain, which is the sequel to My Side of the Mountain, and the prequel to Frightful's mountain. the series is about a boy who has eight siblings, living with both his parents in a tiny apartment in Manhattan. The boy's name is Sam, and he has always had an interest in the wild, and what it would be like to live there. So he tells his dad, "I'm running away to the Mountains, I'm going to live there." His dad laughed and said go ahead, like he wouldn't actually do it. Well, the book is called, "On the Far Side of the Mountain," so you can guess eh proved his dad wrong. He ran off to the mountains, with only a swiss army knife, flint and steel, and a couple other necessities. He made a tiny camp out of sticks and leaves to survive the firs night. I love this book because it shows how humble and non- society dependent a person can be, and can be independent, and not rely on others.

         In On the Far side of the Mountain, Sam has long since made his home on the mountain. He lives on one of the mountains in the Catskills, and his home is an old tree that was gutted, and made cozy. Sam kills deer, squirrels, fish, frogs, and even turtles for food. He wears clothes made from deer hide, and socks lined with rabbit fur. It is the purest world a man could ever live in. I forgot to mention before, that Sam was about 15 when he ran away, and in the book I just finished, he was maybe 18. At the end of the first book, his family goes to visit him, but with a plan in mind. They want to build a farm on the peaceful, natural mountain side, which Sam begged them not to do. They tried anyway, but the soil was so rocky that it was impossible to plow. Then, one of Sam's younger sisters persuaded her parents to let her stay. And she did. She built a tree house a short distance away from Sam's tree. It is truly a beautiful story about a beautiful paradise.

         These are the reasons I love this book. The purity of the Sam and Alice grow so much, that I only wish that that could be reality.