SOLVED. Middle Grade fiction book about boy in plane crash (NOT HATCHET). [s]

[Ashley]

Ok so this book was one that was read by my 5th grade reading teacher over 20 years ago. The boy is in a plane crash (I think it was a small plane) it crashes in the desert. He is alone and has to survive by trying to cross the desert. To do this he has a bottle of water and he holds a little in his mouth everyday as he jogs across the desert. I think there is even a part where he sucks on stones to extract water from them. In the end he does make it out and some guy buys him a milkshake or something and he is thinking about how he just wants water... idk honestly. Ive done so many google searches that im starting to believe I must have made it all up in my head.

[Rainbowheart]

Medicine Walk?

[Ashley]

no, the big is much molder than that.

[Ashley]

book*

[Ashley]

omgosh, the book is much *older than that.

[Rainbowheart]

Do you think the book your teacher read would have been published before 1985?

How old did it seem?

[bookel]

Check this list.
Survival, plane crash -- children's/young adult fiction
https://www.librarything.com/list/561...#

[bookel]

And another list.
Survival, desert -- children's/young adult fiction
https://www.librarything.com/list/559...#

[Gillian]

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall?

[Ashley]

id like to apologize to @rainbowheart because the earlier suggestion of "Medicine Walk" turned out to be the correct book! When I originally googled the suggestion I could only find this book by Richard Wagamese, but when I reviewed the list from @bookel there was another book named Medicine Walk by Ardath Mayhar and that is the book! Thank you all so much for your help! I am so relieved to know I didnt invent this whole memory in my head!

[bookel]

Glad to see it solved. When giving suggestions I prefer to see authors as well, avoiding the need to follow a link.

[Rainbowheart]

Oh, awesome, glad it turned out to be the right one after all!