At some point in your school career, I'm sure you were expected to do a project for a book report. This is a 4th grader's diorama being exhibited in the library. The book is a prize-winning adventure by Jean Craighead George titled "My Side of the Mountain" Here is how one reviewer on Amazon describes the story:
"Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. In a spellbinding, touching, funny account, Sam learns to live off the land, and grows up a little in the process. Blizzards, hunters, loneliness, and fear all battle to drive Sam back to city life. But his desire for freedom, independence, and adventure is stronger. No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons."
This model of the tree house was created out of a bleach bottle covered with magnolia leaves and twigs and a leather flap rolled up over the opening. Inside is a bed and other miniature accessories. Connor's classmates broke out in spontaneous applause when they saw what he had created. As one admiring student exclaimed, "It's just what I imagined when I read this book!"
