FRIGHTFUL'S MOUNTAIN Jean Craighead George. 176 pages. Dutton. $15.99.
Forty years ago Jean Craighead George wrote a fascinating survival story, "My Side of the Mountain." It has remained one of children's favorite books over the years. In the story, a young boy named Sam spends a winter in a hideaway in the Catskills. As Sam learns to fend for himself, he finds animal companions such as weasels, a wild dog and a peregrine falcon baby. He trained the baby falcon so it could help enhance his food supply.Sam's tenacity, solitude and urge for survival stirred many readers, young and old.
In the sequel "On the Far Side of the Mountain," Sam continues his wilderness living. The adventure satisfies the many fans of this gifted nature writer, who is also author of over 80 books including Newbery-winner "Julie of the Wolves," "Acorn Pancakes, Dandelion Salad and 38 Other Wild Recipes."
One young reader asked about the peregrine falcon, Frightful, and what had happened to this endangered bird of prey. "Frightful's Mountain" is an answer to that query.
Instinctively, young readers would question the bird's dependence on human companionship.
Sam realized he was "bending the law" by keeping the bird and also was warned about the apprenticeship he must fulfill before he could own a bird of prey.
In the new book, George has explained the federal and state standards for wildlife, which are policed by the Division of Wildlife. The story is written honestly and with integrity.
She has told the story through the perspective of the falcon without slighting the seriousness of ecological issues.
There is no direct warning about extinct animals and the causes that made them so, but the message comes clearly through with a passionate plea for our attention.
In the book, Frightful had been raised by a boy ("Companionship with Sam had colored her concept of life. Young, old, bird, boy, girl, dog -- companionship was comforting") and therefore didn't develop the peregrine instincts that guide her in mating and becoming an independent hunter of food.
Sam knows that he must let her go and stands by as Frightful leaves "one mountain among thousands, one tree among millions," that had always been her home.
"Frightful's Mountain" tells of the poachers who steal baby peregrines, called eyases, after their incubation, the falcons high-up habitats, called aeries, the pesticides and chemicals that devastate animals that eat crops sprayed with poison.
Local activists (a group of children who write letters pleading for the protection of the aeries from bridge repair), the local government's endless stalling and the persistence of those who protect the birds assures the reader that Frightful and her babies will survive.
The book describes the distinctive features of Frightful (head pure black, breast rosy white), the courting rituals and the swoops and dives of the attacks on her prey.
In tender terms, the book chronicles how Frightful "listens" to her internal devices about hatching the young, helping them become independent hunters -- while learning herself -- and distinguishing between enemy and companion (she and Mole, the dog, still find alliance in hunting).
In the chapter, "The Earth Calls Frightful" she joins a "sky club" of birds as they fly south.
The experienced ones are in the lead, since they ". . . knew to come down early before a storm" or detour around the destructive winds. The migration pattern takes her past Florida, Cuba, over the Caribbean Sea to the Isthmus of Panama heading for Chili. In the Galapagos Islands she witnesses birds and reptiles who had ". . . lived for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps millions, without predators. They were totally unafraid." During this time it was a vacation time for peregrines who ". . . winged out over the water to be rocked by warm seas winds. She climbed up into storm clouds and rolled out of them into sunshine . . . "
Then after the winter solstice, "the sun's message was stronger" and Frightful heads back towards the "one mountain in thousands, the one tree among millions" that has been home for her.
It is thrilling as she finally makes the trip, often thrown amid storm and cold but ultimately returning home.
In the afterword, George has given credit to the professionals who read her manuscript for accuracy and advice about the peregrine falcons, the restrictions and the dangers of their extinction.
She also adds a note of reality: "Peregrines nested on the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge that spans the Hudson River in New York State. When repairs began, no authority would stop the work to protect the endangered birds. Eventually the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved the eyases, and the peregrines did get their young on wing. But the bridge-repair work never stopped for a day."
Salt Lake City also has a story about the endangered birds who nested on a ledge of the Hotel Utah (now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building) and the interest that resulted. That tie-in will make "Frightful's Mountain" a good choice for young readers.