“Lost in the Mountains of Maine” has inspired generations of Mainers. Now his influence may spread across the country.

Larissa Picard has probably read Lost in the Mountains of Maine 15 times.

She was in middle school when she first read the true story of Donn Fendler, a 12-year-old boy who survived nine days alone on Mount Katahdin in 1939. But she continued to read it, and in her twenties she felt the need to write to Fendler to tell him how much the book meant to her, how often she read it, “to remind myself what was important in life.”

“He’s alone. He has to face his fears and the many obstacles that prevent him from returning home, but he continues to put one foot in front of the other and use the skills and knowledge he has learned up to this point to make wise decisions,” said Picard, 54, who lives in Topsham and is the executive director of the Pejepscot History Center in Brunswick. “He defeats all the monsters and manages to come back.”

Lost in the Maine Mountains has been a must-read for generations of Mainers, thanks to all the teachers who have used it over the decades as part of Maine’s fourth-grade curriculum. The book’s story was also kept alive by Fendler himself, who spent the last 25 years of his life sharing his story in schools, libraries, Scout events and almost everywhere he was invited. He died in 2016at the age of 90.



Now Fendler’s story will have a new chance to inspire people across the country with the film “Lost in the Mountains of Maine,” which on Thursday in cinemas across Poland. One of the film’s producers, Ryan Cook, is from Waterville and read the book as a child, first with his parents before hiking Mount Katahdin, and then in fourth grade. He remembers being very impressed when Fendler visited his classroom at Albert S. Hall School.

“Hearing him tell his story made a huge impression on us. He was not only an author; he lived through the experience,” Cook, 38, said he worked on the film for over a decade. “There are kids who love Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, but I love the outdoors and Donn was my kind of hero. This is someone who faced something terrible and real and survived.”

Fendler’s disappearance in the Maine woods in July 1939 made national headlines. He survived nine days without food – walking 45 miles and losing 16 pounds – before he finally went to hunting camp. After these ordeals, President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented Fendler with the annual Army and Navy Legion of Valor medal for an outstanding young hero. He was honored with a parade and an article in Life magazine. Later that year, Fendler told his story to writer Joseph B. Egan for the book “Lost in the Mountains of Maine.”

While the book is still in print, this is the first film adaptation of Fendler’s story. The low-budget, independent film was made with the backing of Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions and was shot primarily in the Catskill Mountains because New York provides studios with greater financial incentives than Maine, Cook said. The film stars Luke David Blumm, who played young Fendler in Netflix’s latest horror series, “The Watcher.” Paul Sparks, who played a hapless journalist on Netflix’s “House of Cards” and a mobster on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” is cast as Fendler’s father. Movie the premiere took place in July at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

Avery Bilodeau, a fourth-grader at Saint Dominic Academy in Lewiston, read the book in the fall. Her teachers asked her and her classmates to record television reports about the book. For her report, Avery held a plastic microphone in front of a rock-covered hill. She told viewers that a 12-year-old boy was missing on the Katahdin Saddle Trail and that “as you can see today” conditions on the trail are difficult.

But Avery stated that her favorite parts of the book deal with Fendler’s encounters with the creatures of the forest and his eventual rescue.

“He dreamed that a squirrel told him that this road with bags led to the camp. Then he woke up and saw a squirrel, so he went down the road with the bags, but it never led to the camp,” said Avery, 9, who lives in Lewiston. “Then he saw a bear and had a dream about it. Then he found another way with the bags and was happy because it led to the camp.”

Although the book is not required in the Maine Studies curriculum for the state’s fourth graders, hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers have chosen to use it over the years. It fits well in a Maine Studies class because it’s very easy for students of that age to understand, said John Thurlow, a retired elementary school teacher and teacher from Scarborough who began using the book in his classes more than 30 years ago. Thurlow says it’s particularly effective at engaging reluctant readers.

“It’s written in a child’s voice and it’s a survival story, it’s suspenseful, so it has elements that will really engage kids of that age,” said Thurlow, 63, who read the book himself as a child. “It’s one of those children’s books that seems to have a universal appeal.”

This story particularly resonated with young people in Maine, who are not often given books in school about exciting events that happen to other young people in Maine.

“It’s a great adventure story for kids, but the fact that it took place close to your community in Maine made it that much more alive,” said musician Griffin William Sherry, 37, who grew up in Buxton and has read the book. “For me it was a generational thing. My parents’ parents read the book to them, then it was my turn.”

Amanda Hill, a News Center anchor from Maine who grew up in Turner and often played in the nearby woods, remembers that the book made her think more carefully about the potential dangers of being out in the wild. It also made her listen more carefully to advice about hiking safety.

“I remember reading it and thinking, ‘Well, is the forest a scary place?’ said Hill, 39. “I remember it was part of a larger conversation with adults about what to do if you get lost. We talked about what he did right and what he did wrong.

Thurlow remembers Fendler coming to school visits with extra copies of his book to sign in case a student didn’t have a copy of his own. Thurlow said Fendler never charged schools for his visits, even for trips away from his home in Newport.

“He loved sharing his story and he loved interacting with kids,” said author Lynn Plourde of Winthrop, who worked with Fendler and artist Ben Bishop to create the 2011 graphic novel “Lost Trail” based on Fendler’s story. “As he grew older, it became more and more physically challenging for him to visit all these places. But once he got there, it was like he flipped a switch and you could see on his face how happy he was to be there.

Hope Mills Keleher, a teacher at Lyseth Elementary School in Portland, remembers trying to get Fendler to come to her class one year when he lived most of the year in Tennessee and only part of it in Maine. Keleher said he was such a popular speaker that all available dates were booked. Instead, her students wrote to Fendler with questions, and he replied to each of them – about 16 of them, Keleher recalled.

“Sometimes I run into students from years ago and they say their favorite fourth-grade reading was ‘Lost in the Mountains of Maine,’” said Keleher, 56. “And I loved teaching it.”

Chuck Major of Orono, Scout director of the Katahdin District Council of the Boy Scouts of America, has heard Fendler speak to Scout groups over the years. He said that once Fendler caught a boy who wasn’t paying attention and told him that if he (Fendler) had paid more attention as a Scout, he probably wouldn’t have gotten lost.

The major said many scouts who had done some hiking and studied wilderness preparation were very impressed with Fendler when they met him.

“Many children asked: ‘How did he survive there?’ ” said Major, 65. “Even as the years passed and the age difference between him and the kids he talked to grew, (the scouts) were always impressed.”

Copy link to story