How would you feel if your company, pet and friend was taken from you?

That is how Sam Gribley felt in On the Far Side of the Mountain by Jean

Craighead George

Sam Gribley is a young, smart and adventurous boy

He lives in the Catskill mountains where he ran away from his parents

His Peregrine Falcon, Frightful, is his friend, pet, company and she hunts

for him.

Alice is his sister that now lives in the wild with him

She is smart, generous and adventurous

A physics teacher nick-named Bando comes and visits Sam every once in a

while

He is high maintenance, but outdoorsy.

One day the park officer pulls up and takes Frightful, an endangered

species, away from Sam

Sam tries everything he can to get her back…

NO LUCK!

He now can no longer get food for himself

He is also depressed and lonely

But he makes a sling and practices to get food

Just as things are getting back to normal, Alice leaves

She goes looking for a new refuge

Bando and Sam set out to find her

She leaves hints to where she is going

Sam knows that an acorn on top of a rock is Alice’s “signature”

After many days of looking and hiking, they finally find her

They also find illegal raptor sellers and Sam sees the man that took Frightful

Frightful is dead

He is dead!

The cops come and arrest them

But then… Sam sees Frightful flying above them

He is alive!

Alice saw Frightful earlier and cut her free from her leashes

There will now be wild Peregrine Falcons on the mountains again

Sam learned to never stop believing

By Philip StollsteimerPeriod 6 reading