The Sign of the Beaver
Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.
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In 1768, thirteen-year-old Matt is left alone in his family's new Maine cabin while his father walks back to Massachusetts to fetch the rest of the family. After a stranger steals his rifle and a bear takes his food, Matt is rescued by an older Penobscot man named Saknis and his grandson Attean.
Yes. The Sign of the Beaver won the Newbery Honor in 1984 and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Elizabeth George Speare also won two Newbery Medals for The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow.
The Sign of the Beaver is middle grade, recommended for readers 8 to 12. It is widely taught in elementary classrooms studying colonial American history and friendship across cultural lines.
The Sign of the Beaver was written by Elizabeth George Speare, published in 1944 by dell.
The Sign of the Beaver is 135 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Sign of the Beaver takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
The Sign of the Beaver is a standalone novel by Elizabeth George Speare, not part of a series.
The Sign of the Beaver is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
