Peg Kerr's Journal

I remember a lot of popular survival books in the 6th grade (either they were really popular a couple of years back, or they're just a fixture of 6th grade) but I suspect you are talking about My Side of the Mountain; it's the only one where the person goes out on purpose on his own, and his family allows it. Someone in the book does compare him to Thoreau, but if you read Thoreau's book, you know that what he does is way more hardcore than anything Thoreau ever did, since Thoreau was really only just outside of cities that he was always going to, and just by the train, and he always had visitors over and things like that.