My Side of the Mountain — Jean Craighead George

Sam Gribley is tired of living in a crowded New York City apartment, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountain wilderness to forge a life of his own. No one takes his plans seriously -- except Sam himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he must rely on his own ingenuity and on the resources of the land to survive. And survive he does. Alone in the mountains, Sam learns about courage, danger, and the true meaning of companionship, and captures it all in his journal. My Side of the Mountain is the vivid and engrossing account of the year that changes Sam's life.