I read it a long time ago so I don't remember ( )

It's the mid-1700s and Matt and his father have built a cabin in the Maine wilderness. His father must go back and bring the rest of the family back to their new home, leaving Matt on his own to look after their property and crop. Matt soon learns it's not easy to take care of yourself and an Indian comes to his rescue. A deal is made with the man and Matt agrees to teach the Indian's grandson to read the white man's scratching in exchange for food. As the story progresses Matt learns more from the Indians than the boy learns from him. Matt's father also does not come back as the months go by.

A wonderfully, beautiful story of friendship between two people of different cultures. Matt's misconceptions of the Indians are challenged as he learns a new way of living. The Indian boy is disdainful of the white boy who does squaw work and doesn't know how to do anything. A bond slowly grows between the boys as they learn from each other and prejudices are set aside.

This is not a plot driven story but more of a slow moving story of two people and their cultures. I've read this about three times now and both my older son and the 8yo really were riveted with the storytelling. Speare is a writer who writes beautiful language and weaves a tale that really makes the reader (or listener :-) care deeply for the characters. I think this book will especially be appreciated by boys and I recommend it wholeheartedly to everyone. A favourite! ( )

Matt is in charge of caring for his house and growing corn while his family is gone. He starts out well, but as time goes on and his father doesn't return, he finds life more and more difficult. He develops a friendship with Attean, a local Native American boy, who teaches him what he needs to know to survive far from others and without his family, but he doesn't earn Attean's respect until he chooses to wait for his family instead of going to the hunt with Attean's tribe. ( )

Nestled in a freshly cleared field, surround by forest, gleams a new cabin built by father and son. They were the first settlers to this part of Maine, and were busy preparing for the children and Ma to join them. In early June, Pa takes off to bring the rest of the family to their new home, leaving behind Matt to tend the cabin and garden. Over the summer, Matt meets the leader of the Beaver Indians and his grandson, Attean. The summer passes, and Matt and Attean learn from each other: Attean learns English and reading and Matt learns to survive alone in the forest. Attean and his family move west following the herds while Matt stays in his cabin determined his family will return.

This book was wonderful, and a true glimpse into the lives of the settlers and the Native Americans. I enjoyed this book much to my surprise. The author's style of writing is fluent, allowing the reader to clearly see the story unfold in their mind.

This book is a definite in my plans for text sets and lesson plans. There are so many purposes and uses that I'll try to control myself! First, I think this is a great candidate for a text set for a survival theme. I would love to compare/contrast with Everything on a Waffle about the different type of survival each character faced. This is a great book to include in a Colonial Period unit for the sheer fact of how commonly used items were created back then, followed with an online field trip or webquest to see what these items actually looked like. This book is good to teach tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, and can be used to demonstrate how we can learn and grow from them.

This book takes place in the 1700’s when early colonization was taking place in North America. A young 13-year-old boy named Matt was left behind by his father in order to keep the land claimed and protected as his father went back to get the rest of the family. Matt soon finds out that it was a more difficult task than he had imagined and faced great life threatening situations. In the meantime he befriends an Indian tribe who saves his life and helps him survive. The story has many action scenes that keeps the reader wanting to read to find out the outcome and what decision the boy will make concerning his new Indian friends or looking for his family.

I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, the plot of the friendship that develops between Matt and the young Indian boy named Attean. At first Matt did not befriend him but as the story continues they do become good friends. Also, the author did well in creating several dilemmas that Matt had to face and had to make a decision. The greatest dilemma was at the end when Matt had to decide to stay with his new friends or go back and look for his family. It was an excellent book and I would recommend reading it to the class.

I believe that this would be a good book to read to the classroom for just a few minutes each day. It may be a little longer but I believe it would be worth reading to the class. It has some good historical facts that can be mentioned about the life of the early settlers and what it was like for the Indians whose lives were changed during this time era. I would use this book to introduce some of the facts of our history and use it to encourage reading for pleasure.