Left alone to
guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century
Maine, Matt is hard-pressed to survive until neighboring
Indians teach him their skills. This is a timeless story
of courage, commitment, friendship, values, and
overcoming cultural divides. It won the Newbery Honor
Medal in 1984.
The Beginnings
Elizabeth George Speare got the idea for Sign of the Beaver from an actual story. Read the description of the "real-life" Matt and Attean. Use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the fiction with the nonfiction.