There are many reasons why Jean Craighead George wrote My Side of The Mountain. Two of those reasons include telling about her own life, and educating her audience about wildlife and nature. George talks a lot about her own life when she was young and tried to run away. She also gives instruction on how to make survival tools like a hook and traps.
In the preface George talked about her life when she was younger and the things she did. I think George wrote this book because she planned to run away only to be back at her house. This is exemplified when she writes, " As I envisioned it, I would live by a waterfall in the woods and catch fish on hooks made from forks of tree limbs" (George, ix). George had already planned to run away, but later it said, "Forty minutes later I was home" (George, ix). I think the adventures of Sam were all the events George imagined when she was planning of running away. George ran away at a very young age, and since she was so young, couldn't handle being alone and caring for herself. After she ran away she probably wrote down everything she was going to do and put them all together to create this book.
Another reason why she might have wrote this book was to educate people of all ages about wildlife and the nature. The things that Sam do in this book are explained in depth with lots of detail. It even incorporates detailed pictures/diagrams. It seems that George either went out and did these things herself when she was older or did research. The diagrams in this book are explained in so much detail, that it could be used as an alternative survival guide. George talked about making hooks from tree limbs in the preface, and later Sam explained how to make it. This could be very useful to someone who is lost camping needing a tool to get food. George probably wanted people to know more about survival and how people interact with nature.
Jean Craighead George wrote My Side of The Mountain for many reasons, but the two most important reasons are to put all of the things she wanted to do on paper, and educate people on survival and interactions among people and nature.
In your third paragraph, you mentioned the book's pictures and diagrams. You could probably expand the paragraph more if you described more about these diagrams so that the person who is reading your post will know what diagrams and pictures you are actually referring to. I would like to hear more about the author's "adventure" when she ran away. (I know you already explained it and used the book to provide proof, so to elaborate more on the author, you could do some research.)Also, you could include who in particular(for example a certain age group) the book was intended and directed to.
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