Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sign of the Beaver


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(realistic fiction)
The Sign of the Beaver
by Elizabeth George Speare

This story takes place in 1768, and begins with a young boy named Matt and his dad who move to Maine. Matt is left alone in this unknown place while his Dad travels back to Massachusetts to get the rest of their family. Matt is young and very afraid while his Dad is gone. He only has a rifle to protect himself, and that gets stolen. He is running low on food so one day he eats honey out of a beehive and the bees attack him so he jumps into the water. He starts to drown, but the Indians save him. Matt is grateful they saved his life, and the Indian leader, Sakinis, asks Matt to teach his grandson, Attean, how to read in return. Attean is mean to Matt at first and Matt does not know what to do or how to teach him, But eventually they become great friends. Attean even asks Matt to join his Indian tribe since his family still hasn’t returned in months. However, Matt decides to stay and wait for his family, who eventually return, but the two friends are sad to leave each other. I would use this book in my classroom when I was teaching my students about early settlers and the hostility between the Americans and the Native Americans when we first came here.

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