LOST ON A MOUNTAIN IN MAINE

AUTHOR: Donn Fendler, as told to Joseph B. Egan / PHOTOGRAPHER: photos from a variety of sources
AGE LEVEL / LENGTH: 8 years-adult / 125 pages
PUBLISHER / COPYRIGHT DATE: Cricketfield Press (hardcover);
William Morrow (paperback); Audio Bookshelf (audio book) / 1939
FORMAT / ISBN: Hardcover / 0897251008; Paperback / 068811573X;
Audio book/1883332044

Lost on a Mountain in Maine tells the true story of twelve-year-old Donn Fendler. While hiking down from the top of Mount Katahdin in July 1939, Fendler became cold and impatient and ran ahead of a friend to meet his father and brothers further down the trail. Instead, he became hopelessly lost. For nine days the boy fought to survive in the Maine wilderness with hunger, wild animals, mosquitoes, the weather, and rough, unmarked terrain working against him.

His journey to an inhabited cabin on the east branch of the Penobscot River was nothing short of a miracle. Photographs from a variety of sources, including newspaper reports of Donn's rescue, add a further touch of realism to the ordeal. Lost on a Mountain in Maine is a classic survival tale that thousands and thousands of school children from across the country have enjoyed for close to sixty years. The book reads like fiction; but the fact that it is a true story makes it all the more incredible and inspirational to young readers.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1. Study a map of the hiking trails in Baxter State Park. Can you see how it was possible for Donn Fendler to get lost? Write to a ranger at the park. How many people are lost on Katahdin each year? In what ways are trails marked and hikers kept safe? Who is responsible for searching for lost hikers?

2. Talk with rangers, guides, and scout leaders about wilderness safety. Read safety manuals. Then write and design a wilderness safety guide for children.

3. Lost on a Mountain in Maine captures the day-to-day trials of Donn Fendler's wilderness trek. Find out what the reaction of the outside world was to his ordeal by reading newspaper stories about Fendler's experiences, starting from July 17, 1939.

4. Donn Fendler did not write his own story, but rather he shared his recollections with Joseph B. Egan. Egan then wrote Lost on a Mountain in Maine from Fendler's perspective, using the boy's own words as much as possible. Find someone who has had an adventure (even a small one). Interview that person to learn details about the person's adventure. Then write a description of that person's adventure, trying to make it sound realistic and believable. Did you find it more difficult to write someone else's story than writing a story about yourself? Why or why not?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Since his brush with death in Baxter State Park more than fifty years ago, Donn Fendler has received hundreds of letters, mostly from Maine school children, which he says he always answers. He still visits many Maine schools every year. Fendler currently lives in Clarksville, Tennessee, but summers in Newport, Maine. He attended Maine Central Institute, in Pittsfield, and the University of Maine. Fendler is retired from the U.S. Army. Fendler says that this book was not dedicated to anybody, but if he was to dedicate the book today, it would be to the Boy Scouts of America. Fendler's love for and appreciation of scouting is shown by his active involvement in scouting, attaining the rank of Life Scout.