To ask you to identify a childhood book ...

[cruelladepoppins]

DH, who was a child in the 60s and early 70s, thinks he remembers reading a book about a boy who wanted to live as an American Indian so built a tepee, collected feathers for his headdress, learned how to start a fire without matches and lived an "Indian" life in parallel to his own.

DH thinks that there were illustrations in the style of technical drawings, unless he has imagined those too.

Any ideas?

The Sign of the Beaver?

@bassackwards thank you for that - I looked it up, but it was published in the 80s, so that's not it.

I can't remember the details of the story but I remember a Peter and Jane book and the cover was a picture of Peter sitting in a teepee wearing an American Indian headdress. Maybe it was that?

An author called Grey Owl wrote some books a bit like that - I know Sajo and her beaver people but there may have been others.

Woah no but this does remind me of the series “The Indian in the Cupboard” which was pretty great.

This one?

Yes, that's it! Although as it's book 1A I think it's unlikely to be OP's book with an actual story.

It wasn't My Side of the Mountain, was it? The boy in that doesn't want to live like a Native American, but he does go to live in the wild, and there are some technical line drawings of survival skills.

I was going to say My Side Of The Mountain too. Great book.

Wasn’t it just? DS adored that series. We had all the books and films and he carried his Playmobile ‘Boone’ in his picket for months. Brilliant!

Thanks everybody. I have shown DH all the suggestions but none of them hits the target. (And we both agree that "my side of the mountain" sounds like a great book!)

The Indian in the cupboard?

The original book was followed by four sequels: The Return of the Indian (1985); The Secret of the Indian (1989); The Mystery of the Cupboard (1993); and The Key to the Indian (1998). Could it be any of them?

Or I think there's another book called tin soldier? Or something similar?

if you have no luck here, then go to abebooks and try their booksleuth forum

It is a fabulous book. I read it aloud to my boys when they were younger and they absolutely loved it.

Good luck with the search.