If you (or your child) likes “Hatchet” or “My Side of the Mountain”, try this book. What did bother me was the adult narrator’s pronunciation of “Bangor.” It’s “BANG-gore.” And I’ve always heard “Fendler” pronounced just how it looks “FEND-ler.” The narrator says “FIN-ler”. That is the whole vocabulary list you need to remember. Donn used the term “Christmas” for surprise rather than a swear word. “Reefer” is coat, “Dungarees” are blue jeans (the word my grandfather always used for them). I listened this time waiting for words that would have affected my listen. This event happened and the book published over eighty years ago - of course the language is different. I don’t understand the review that said the out of date language was a problem. Fendler used to visit Maine schoolrooms and talk to the children about his experiences and I’ve always wished I could have gone to one of those talks. On July 17, 1939, 12-year-old Fendler was separated from his family during a storm near the summit of Maines Mount Katahdin. If anything, I feel for this little boy more now that I’m an adult and more firmly understand what could have been. When twelve-year-old Donn Fendler gets tired of waiting for his father and brothers to join him on the summit of Maine's highest peak, he decides to find his own way back to camp. I read it first forty years ago and it hasn’t lost any of its magic since then. Most children in Maine schools have to read Lost on a Mountain in Maine - the story of Donn Fendler is very familiar here.
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