The Sign of the Beaver

One again, I am glad that I was able to read a book of my choice this week. I read another book that I bought for my future classroom (mainly because I do not want to look dumb if a student asks me what the book is about). The Sign of the Beaver is also another Newbery honor book, so I figured it must be worthy of reading. Plus, it has Indians in it, so I knew it would be interesting at least. I read somewhere between 90-100 minutes in the story and already really like it. Now to the story... Matt and his pa built a nice log house in the Maine country for their family that stayed back in Massachusetts. Matt stayed behind to protect the house and territory as his pa went back to get his ma, sister, and new baby sibling (don't know yet since it was born while they were gone). I think Matt's pa said he would be back in 7 weeks, so Matt has to make a mark in a stick seven times per stick until he uses up 7 sticks. This will allow him to keep count of the days and know when to come find his family if they are not there yet. I thought this was pretty cool because it is a cool way to keep track of time. While his pa is gone, Matt is supposed to tend to the corn and pumpkin patch behind the house and build some more shelving/different things in the house. He was doing fine on his own and shooting with his pa's nice gun (who gave it to him since it was nicer than his old gun). However, he ran into some trouble with a fellow who appeared to be a nice man who just needed a place to stay for the night and a meal. I knew Matt should not have trusted him because this man was constantly complimenting Matt on the place, his gun, the corn, etc. Matt had a bad feeling about this man who passed out on the floor, but he also knew his pa would be upset with him if he did not welcome a good-hearted stranger. Real good-hearted this man happened to be as he stole the gun and disappeared in the wilderness. Therefore, Matt does not have any way now to get food other than picking berries once in a while and fishing. The molasses and salt ran out and made Matt sick of eating his fish plain. I do not think I could eat fish plain either... it kind of made me sick thinking about it. Matt then remembers a beehive and tries to steal a bark of honey from the bees; however, this was a bad idea. The bees swarmed and stung him until he fell in the water and got hung up in weeds. He eventually got withdrawn from a pair of strong hands - Indian hands in fact. He was led back to his house and tended to by this older Indian. Once Matt finally came through, this Indian made a treaty with him to teach his grandson (Attean) to read the words of the white man in exchange for food everyday. At first Attean resented Matt's attempts at helping because Attean did not wish to learn about the white man's ways. However, he knew his grandfather highly recommended it since he could communicate better with the white men as more settlers would establish residence in the area. Matt and Attean had troubles at first with their lessons, but they eventually end up learning from each other. I ended when Attean was teaching Matt how to fish with a spear (which sounds ten times more fun than with a fishing pole). I would have ended up just like Matt probably and embarrass myself by falling in the water. Still, it would be fun to try it some time.