The Sign of the Beaver

Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake (1988)

In this novel, a US Civil War hero is called to the frontier, where he meets a village of Comanche buffalo hunters, learns their ways, and decides to become one of them. Many of the issues in The Sign of the Beaver are addressed in Dances with Wolves. Blake made a screenplay of the book that became an Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Kevin Costner in 1990. (In the film adaptation, the Indigenous characters are Lakota Sioux.) The book’s Lexile rating, 940L, suggests readability for 6th graders and above.

• Dances with Wolves on SuperSummary

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1958)

In this novel, a teenage English girl in the 1680s moves from a wealthy life in the Caribbean to a religiously conservative Connecticut colony—where she suffers severe prejudice and the threat of execution at the hands of intolerant colonists. The book is written by the same author of The Sign of the Beaver, describing a similar colonial culture and exploring what it is like to have one’s life overturned by the biases of a different society.

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond on SuperSummary