A complete literature study built around the survival classic, with hands-on nature study, writing, and a Bible study.

Jean Craighead George wrote and illustrated My Side of the Mountain from a real naturalist's life, which is why the book teaches your child to observe the world while they think they are just reading an adventure. This guide turns that gift into a full literature study you can open and teach.

Sam Gribley survives a year alone in the Catskills by watching, not by luck. He reads the weather in the birds, learns safe foods by watching the animals, and builds a home inside a hollow hemlock. The guide follows that thread all the way through, pairing close reading with real nature study, writing, geography, history, and an honest faith conversation that grows out of the story rather than being added on top.

It comes in two parts. You get the full parent guide with everything taught and every answer key. Your student gets a separate consumable workbook with their own write-on pages, so a child can work independently while you keep the teaching copy. The questions are numbered to match, so checking work is simple.

Built for grades 4–7, it reads aloud well for younger siblings and offers three writing levels so multi-age families can teach one book at three depths. It belongs to the Middle School Survival and Frontier Fiction collection, alongside The Sign of the Beaver.

What's Included

The Parent Guide (about 62 pages):

• Seven sections covering background, reading, characters, themes, writing, hands-on projects, and assessment
• Eight chapter-by-chapter reading units with comprehension, literary analysis, and going-deeper questions, each with an answer key
• Character profiles, a relationship web, and arc questions
• Four themes with fill-in tracking tables, discussion questions, and a three-part Bible study (creation, provision, and the book's deepest thread, that we are not made to be alone)
• Three essay tracks at Foundation, Standard, and Advanced levels, plus a growth rubric
• A naturalist's field notebook project and a "write the lost chapter" project
• Geography (the Catskills and the watershed that feeds New York City), history (falconry, the abandoned-farm-to-forest story, Thoreau), art connections, book pairings, and a cooking bonus
• A quiz, an oral exam, and a final reflection, all with answer keys and guidance

The Student Workbook (about 50 pages):

• The student's own write-on pages for every reading unit, theme, essay, project, and the quiz
• Generous handwriting space sized for grades 4–7
• Field notebook pages with sketch boxes and observation prompts
• No answer keys or teacher notes, so it stays a clean workbook your child can own

Why This Guide Is Different

The survival skills, the falconry, and the plant lore are accurate because the author lived them. That authenticity is the spine of the study, and it is what turns a reading assignment into a child who wants to go outside and look closely. The faith thread is kept genuine, drawn from what the book already does, never forced. 

FAQs:

Is the student workbook included, or sold separately? Both files are included in this download: the full parent guide and the separate student workbook.

Do I need anything else to use this? Just a copy of the novel, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Everything else is in the guide.

Can I use it with more than one child? Yes. Print one student workbook per child. The guide is licensed for single-family use.

What grades is it for? Grades 4–7, with three writing levels so you can teach several ages from the same book.