Frightful's Mountain

By Jean Craighead George

Book Overview

Frightful, the pelegrine falcon, could not see. A falconer's hood covered her head and eyes. She remained quiet and clam, like all daytime birds in the dark. She would hear, however. She listened t the wind whistling through the pine needles. The wind-music conjured up images of a strange woods and unknown flowers. The sound was foreign. It was not the soft song of wind humming through the hemlock needles of home. Frightful was a long way from her familiar forest. Suddenly an all-invading passion filled her. She must go. She must find one mountain among thousands, one hemlock tree among millions,. And the one boy who called himself Sam Gribley. The one mountain was her territory, the one tree was Sam's house, the perch beside it, her place. And Sam Gribley was life. So begins the third book in the wilderness series that has lifted imaginations around the worlds. Readers last head from Sam Gribley a decade ago , when he kept the hardest resolution of his life and let his falcon partner go free. Now at last we pick up the sotry'but this time, the narrative continues through Frightful's keen-sighted eyes. Raised by Sam, Frightful is an imprinted bird. She has no idea how to migrate, mate, or be a mother. She can barely even feed herself, for although she is a skilled hunter, it was always Sam who signaled permission to partake of the kill. Sam, so patient and kind, will support her from afar, and so will bird activists Jon and Susan wood and conservationist Leon Longbridge. But despite a letter-writing campaign by local schoolchildren, other would despoil her Catskill home'designing fatal electrical wires and disturbing good nesting areas with jackhammers and paint trucks. With evolution and a proud natural intelligence on her side, Frightful may yet beat the odds of famine, winter, and human encroachment. But her terrible longing for that one mountain among thousands, her first home'a longing so noble and generous yet so dangerous'will govern her to either heartbreaking failure or hart-aching triumph, a triumph so right and so natural that readers will want to take to the skies in celebration. Jean Craighead George published My Side of the mountain in 1959, a Newbery Honor Book and coming-of-age story that has enthralled and entertained generations of would-be Sams. This third book in the series shares'in exquisite, elegantly flowing prose?Frightful's own passage into adulthood, taking readers on a journey into the mind and spirit of one of the wild's most magnificent creations and proving once again why the author is considered the most gifted nature writer of her time.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525461663
• ISBN13: 9780525461661
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.2" x 1.0" x 5.8"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 4 and higher

Customer Reviews

Wonderful story!

Very captivating! Wonderful end to this trilogy!

Different Direction

Frightful's Mountain does take place after the events in The Far Side of the Mountain, but if you go in expecting continuity, you'll be surprised. Since the story is told from Frightful's perspective, it's not about a human learning to survive in the wild; it's about falcons trying to survive a world inhabited by humans. There's much more in here about the negative impact humans have had on nature; it's still age-appropriate to the other books, but it's a very different tone, and a completely different adventure (Frightful's migration is a big part of it, most of the book is not in the Catskills.)

This book is amazing

I remember reading this as a kid over and over again because it was that amazing and inspiring.

A pick up to loose ends.

This was a great follow up story to the Far Side of the Mountain. In the end, you wonder what happened to Frightful after she was released into the wild, and this is the perfect story to conclude it. I loved the detail of how Jean Craighead George described Frightful's actions. It is an easy story to get caught up in. Anyone who reads this won't be able to put it down until they're finished, especially if they have read the previous two books. Definetly a winner in my collection!!

''Frightful finds Sam again''

Frightful is the third book of the series My Side of the Mountain. In the begining Sams sister Alice frees Frightful from mean people. She is lost trying to find Sam Gribly. She is hunting for food when all a sudden a male falcon shows off by swooping upside down and touching her talons. She mates with him{Chup} who had a mate because three nestlings are in the nest. Lady,Duchess and Drum. Two males and one female. Then they grow up and try to hunt by themselves by practicing on Frightful and Chup. They can not handle them practicing on them so they both sleep in two different places. Later on in the story it is migrating season so all the birds went southward to a warmer place so they could survive with food. Frightful did not migreate because she had stayed with Sam the whole year round in the same places. She has no food so she goes to find her hunting pal who is a dog named Mole. She gets to the house but no dog no owner. She flies to a house she sees and lands nearby and sees Mole coming towards the steps bleeding and limping. She sees food he usualy shared but he snarled at her. Frightful saw Duchess by the house. Two men who probably caught Duchess came outside with a net they captured birds showed them to people and hurt the bids after. The net was to capture, and they were going to capture Frightful. They captured Frightful and went in the house Frightful wiggle until she was free at last. She saw a nearby telephone wire and landed on it to purch she got shocked and burned. She fell all the way down to the grouned. An nice man came by saw Frightful and picked her up. Her feathers were burnt on the edges and she was shocked. The man held her. Frightful was dead. This is not the end so the peolple who read this you will need to read the rest of Frightful's Mountain

A Touching Story

Jean Craighead George really put a lot of effort into this book. It seems so realistic, I had to read the Author's Note to know most of the characters were fictional. It is a heartwarming story about Frightful, the peregene falcon that Sam trains. Sam is a very simple person who is very fond of animals like I am. This book is worth reading-most definetly.

This was a book I could not put down!!!

If you have read "My side of the Mountain" or "On the Far Side of the Mountaain" then you will throughly enjoy this book. If you have read the previous books than you may be wondering, "What ever happened to Frightful?" Well this book tells it all. Frightful is a peregrine falcon that was hand raised by Sam Gribley. After being set free by Sam becuase he couldn't keep an endangered speices, Frightful had many adventures. This book tells how it would be if you saw the world through Frightful's eyes. I would highly recomend it to anyone who has read the other books or not. You don't need to read the previous books for this captivating story to make sense!