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The Sign of the Beaver is a children’s historical novel by Elizabeth George Speare published in 1983. The story is set in the 18th century and follows a 12 year-old boy, Matt James Hallowell, who is building a log cabin with his father in the wilderness of Maine. Left alone at the cabin while his father leaves to retrieve the rest of the family, Matt struggles to cope with challenging survival situations and is ultimately aided by the appearance of Attean, a member of the indigenous Beaver tribe. The Sign of the Beaver was inspired by a true story dating from 1802 and documented in a history of the small town of Milo, Maine; in it, a teenage boy left to care for his family’s cabin was helped by the local Natives when his supplies were ravaged by a bear. The book is one of Speare’s most popular novels, winning multiple literary awards including the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Newbery Medal.