BOOK REVIEW ILLUSTRATION: The Sign of the Beaver Elizabeth George Speare

The Sign of the Beaver Elizabeth George Speare July 1, 1984 144 pages 8-12 year Newbery Honor book The novel is a children’s literature and its genre is historical fiction. The book is a historical fiction because it involves the characters of native Americans. It tells the story of 13-year-old Matt James Hallowell, an 18th-century American settler. He and his father build a log cabin in the wilderness of Maine. Matt is left alone to guard the cabin and his family claim the land while his father heads back to Quincy, Massachusetts to pick up his mother, his sister and the new baby and bring them back to the cabin. Matt learns how to survive and deal with difficult situations, getting help from Attean, a Native American boy, and his family. When Matt fears his father will not return, Attean asks him to join the Beaver tribe and move north. One of the literal devises is foreshadowing and this is seen where Ben clearly covets the rifle and engineers an opportunity to stay at the cabin foreshadows his early morning theft. There is Allusions in the book and it is seen where Robinson Crusoe thinks that the relationship between Matt and Attean often resembles that of Crusoe and Man Friday although it is actually the perceived "savage" who resembles Robinson Crusoe and the white boy who is more like his manservant. The writer also uses paradox. For example, Matt's father warns him to beware of the Indians but paradoxically it is only the white man in the form of renegade hunter Ben that he actually needs to be afraid of. Some of the themes in the book include; isolation, where Matt stays in the wilderness alone for a long time. other themes presented in the book include; prejudice, coinage of age and man and masculinity. The units that can be taught from the book is arts and language arts. Show Less