Elizabeth George Speare Books

A boy named Matt is left alone in Maine Woods. His father has left him to go and get his new baby sister. The really cool things happen when a boy is left in the woods with Indians. Matt and an Indian meet and the book get really good. I think that the best thing in this book is the relationship and the way it changes. They start out as true enemies, but weird events in this story make the relationship grow. The amazing part is the reactions that Attean (the Indian) has. Also the stories he tells. This is a great book with a really great plot and very fun to read. I really enjoyed it.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read.Its got sadness,happiness,and most of all this book has a lot of adventure.Its about a 12 year old boy who has to live on his own in the wilderness of Maine.He meets Indians and learns there way of living.

This book is fantastic! And it is not only good for kids but adults can get a lot out of it too. It is very accurate to the political and historical facts surrounding the time of Jesus and it leaves you with what I think is an accurate portrayl of what it was like in Isreal when Jesus walked the earth. It has a fantastic messege of love that I will never forget. This is my favourite book and I recomend it to everyone. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I don't read Spanish well but I have a student who would love this book and she reads better in Spanish than English. I'm glad that they have this book available in a language she reads well.

u will just love this book :)!! This book is good for all ages!!
It talks about this girl Kit Tyler who goes to Connecticut Colony, She left from The Caribean Island oh wait a min. Have you seen Pirates of the Caribean yet Deads Mans Chest i think that johnny depp and orlando r so cute!!! any ways she gets accuse of witchcraft!!

This has got to be one of the best books that I have read. It started out a little slow for me, but once I got into it, I really liked it. It has a really good message to it, and it was really inspiring to me. I read some reviews about how it was too detailed or boring, but that is not true at all. It is not a total action book, but that is not what it is meant to be. I loved this book and it is part of my top ten.

There are a great deal of "Young Adult Fiction" books that I didn't get around to reading at the "right age." The Bronze Bow is one such book. I didn't read it until I was out of college and had a better understanding of the Jewish faith and customs, and I wondered what had taken me so long. This book is wonderful! It presents an accurate picture of everyday life in early Christian Jerusalem and reveals how family tragedy can scar young lives. Daniel's hatred of the Romans is an obssessive passion; it consumes him to the extent that he cuts himself off from other people and future relationships that he could have. "It is Roman blood I want!" he says and he lives for the day when the last Roman is driven from the land. He sees his relationsips with others, his feelings for his girlfriend Thacia, his sister Leah, and his friend Sampson as his "weakness", something to hold him back from this goal he is trying to reach, and he continually shuts them out, though he is very lonely and unhappy when doing so. Only when he is alone and everyone is slipping away from him does he realize that hatred will not fill the emptiness in his heart.

I have always enjoyed Biblical fiction and am presently working on a book of my own. When I knew that this took place in early Christian times, I grabbed it right away! The unusual thing is that it ends before the
Crucifiction, leaving readers to wonder how the characters of this story will react to it. It beautifully illustrates Christian truths, the power of love over hatred and the power to do all things, even impossible things, with God's help. A treat for fans of Biblical and historical fiction!

This is an interesting read for kids over the age of 10, and for adults as well. The main character depicts a Jewish teenager named Daniel living at the same time as Jesus. Daniel is deeply disturbed over the Roman occupation of Israel and the death of his parents. The book provides an excellent forum to teach children about religious tolerance and getting along with others. The characters are complex, allowing for deep literary analysis, and the historical context is educational, something that adolescents will associate with, given their background in world history. The story is both endearing and stimulating, with an active plot. My 11 year old is planning to read it again.

My 12 year old son and I read this book for his (homeschool) English class. I read it with him as it was a hard read for him. But we both really liked it and as we got further into the book we didn't want to put it down, but read as much as we could. It has a good lesson about not keeping revenge and hate in your heart. It is set in Jesus' time and he is a character in the book. We are not Christians, but loved the book's lesson and story line and I was glad to discuss the topics the story line brought up.

I read this with two of my children a handful of years ago and just recently, for the second time, with my youngest. It's even better than I remembered! Others have summed up the plot very well, so I'll just say, this is an excellent book!

It is very interesting to look at Miriam's character in this story. It is a little hard to sympathize with her at the beginning, because she is so self centered. She doesn't seem to care for much past herself. But that changes as the story progresses, and she becomes caring and giving to others. As she does, she begins to find an inner peace that had eluded her for most of the story.
I also like how everything in this story is so accurately portrayed. I have read how some readers have been shocked how Indians are referred to as "savages," and "redskins." The author was merely trying to portray how many of the settlers saw them. Besides, in the story, Miriam is corrected by one of the characters, who tries to show her the Indians in a different light. I also like how the French are shown, a little frivolous, with a great love for the material things, but kindhearted as well (most of them).
All in all, this book is quite good, with many twists and turns, though I found it a tiny bit slow at times.

This is a beautiful story of a girl who was a captive to both the Indians and the French. Some parts of this book I did not like because of the way they called Indians "Redskins", although they might have called them that. After I got into it, it was a lot more interesting. The writing style was good, because it had different points of view, and it is historically accurate. I couldn't put it down. The book is an epic tale of a young girl who learns to adapt to her surroundings. I loved this book from beginning to end. I enjoyed reading it very much.

Calico Captive is Elizabeth George Sprears (1908-1994) first novel. It was inspired by the diary of Susanna Willard Johnson, abducted by the Abenaki Indians in 1754 (during the French and Indian War) from her house in Fort Number 4 in Charleston, New Hampshire, published for the first time in 1796 and then 1807 (and presently available online at www.canadiana.org). Susanna Johnson was made captive with all her family, including a 14 year old sister, turned into the sixteen year old Miriam in the book, conducted to the Indian settlement of St. Francis and then sold to the French in Montreal, where she remained for three years before being set free after the payment of ransom. It took some years still before the whole family could be reunited.

Captivity narratives evolved into a kind of literary genre during the early years of American literature. These diaries, mostly by women, were always written at distance from the event of the abduction and share in their originality many stereotyped situations. These memories have been identified by modern critics as vehicles for a subjective rather than objective truth, as a means of political propaganda and as a form of sensational literature such as the "slave narratives". Post-modern and cultural analysis have re-evaluated them as examples of gender and culture conflicts and pointed out the principal elements of the genre: what a proper woman should do in a desperate situation and the religious message of sticking to Faith in times of adversity. Not rarely, however, the captives depict their captors as individuals and somehow opened themselves to these foreign (Indian or French) cultures. Susanna Johnson's diary is one of those in which the captors, be they Indian or French, are shown in all their humanity and this old document, even if difficult to read, retains a charm of its own.

This long introduction is to explain the importance, the originality and the enduring success of "Calico captive". This novel, more often than not classified as children or adolescent literature makes a great read also for adults. Elizabeth George Spear describing Susanna's little sister Miriam introduces into this real adventure a fictionalized and modern young girl, that with her thoughts and actions allows the reader to identify with the history, the characters and the literary genre.

Miriam is sixteen, just starting to get interested in a young Harvard bound Phineas Whitney, when she is ripped away from her home. During her march through the woods, she keeps blaming her family for their capture and she thinks with longing and rage of her new blue dress. These small things seem more important than the plight the family is withstanding. But how true, that a sixteen year old girl would think of it this way! Once in the Indian settlement she tries to get along with her masters and decides to learn sewing and embroidery and tries to make the best of her situation. But when she is brought to Montreal, the contact with the long despised French, completely upsets her beliefs and standards. The people she meets are sincere and sympathetic, all the world revolving around her is interesting and her mind opens to the acceptance of another culture (European) and another religion (Roman Catholicism). She realizes the enemy is not so different from us and she integrates so well, to be asked to be part of that world. The temptation is strong but inside her mind her steadfastness, modelled on that of her sister Susanna, consents her to take the right decision.

One of the most interesting aspects of Miriam's outlook is the acceptance of what she has to learn from her captors: the embroidery from the Indians, the fashion and gaiety from the French, and at the same time the understanding of the relations of the other members of her family (Sylvanus the little boy that loves to run wild with the Indians, the little Susanna that loves to be pampered by her adoptive French aunts, her older sister Susanna that has so many prejudices against the French).

A great deal of historical research is evident in the book's preparation and the Authors descriptive capacities consent a complete identification with the characters and the situations. Old Montreal is there before our eyes, as are the dresses of the Frenchwomen and the sparkling ballrooms, but we can also feel the cold, the hunger and the discomfort of life among the woods.

This novel has a double value. In the first place it is a beautiful story to read and enjoy and at the same time an occasion for learning what life was like during the French and Indian War, but in the second place it is a modern version of captivity narrative that allows the reader to appreciate this genre of literature so popular many years ago.

A small personal P.S.: I read this book borrowing it from the Library when I was nine years old (1966) and I enjoyed very much. After so many years, I found it a bookshop in Boston this summer and I bought it with enormous joy. I took it back to Italy, where I now live, and read it with all the enthusiasm of when I was nine. Naturally, I now understand more things than I did then and the Net helps us out in gaining more information on the topic, but the joy of reading the book I assure you was just the same! [...]

Having read in various books of the French and Indian war of Susanah Johnson's captivity and ordeal, I came across this fictionalized account set through the eyes of her sister, Miriam. Being curious, I purchased it.

This is the life developing story of a teenage girl and in that it is a good story. Taking the character from her abduction by savages near fort Number Four (whose attrocities are well documented) to her captivity (something not so well documented)in the native settlement of St. Franceis to her being deliverered to Montreal (she had been sold though no details are shown) in New France to her eventual repatriation.

Based on a true story narrated by the heroine's sister Susanna Johnson in 1807, and containing numerous historical innacuracies and clearly some early Politically correct biases of the auttor,this will be interesting reading to a teenager as well as an adult. Though due to lack of availablility, I do not fault the author's numerous historical and cultural inaccuracies in her story, I must confess I do not care for the author portraying the character as narrow minded in comparison to the Abanakis whose label of Savages is well deserved and their attrocities are well documented or of the Catholic French who were hardly the most tolerant of people as French Huegenots in France and many English protestant captives discovered after being sold to them by the natives. Indeed though there is much reported of english captives being purchased from the natives by their French patrons not much is out on the details.
Certainly the proto-political correctness could have been done without.

Otherwise it is a good story as far as story telling goes.

I feel, with proper research to correct its flaws, it would make a nice tv movie for kids.

This Historical Fiction Novel is great!! It helped me understand more about the time era. After the first few pages, I got really into the book. It made me feel as if I really were the main character, and going through her struggles. This book expresses the characters really well, and is fun to read!!

The Sign of the Beaver
By Elizabeth George Speare

The Sign of the Beaver was an extremely well written book that made you feel like you where there! It made you see the log cabin, and the corn patch and the forest all around the house. I absolutely loved it.

The Sign of the Beaver took place in the 1700s, and is about a boy named Matt, living in a forest in Main. He and his father went out into the forest, and made a new log cabin, planted corn and his father left Matt there to watch the cabin while he went to get his family. Now he is waiting for his father to return from Quincy with his mother, sister and the new baby. But what he found in the forest he would never forget.

He found Indians, ducks, beavers and even a bear! He planted corn and pumpkins for the winter. If you like hunting, fishing, exploring and nature, this is the book for you! You will especially like how he makes traps, snares, and fishing hooks.

I loved this book so much that I read it in two days! I just could not put it down.
I would recommend this book for kids 11 and up. I also give this book four stars out of five.

By Seth C.
Age 13

I really liked this book, but I only rate it a nine becuase it I'm not all that interested in Indians. Otherwise, the text was wonderful. It was a good book

I loved this book when I was a little girl. I read it at least four times. I would suggest this book to any young girl with a love of History, or reading.

I read this book when I was ten, and loved it so much that I read it again.
This was in the late 60's and I still have it. Great story.

My office mate and I exchange book, and one day the Witch of Blackbird Pond was on my desk. I remembered reading this book in late elementary school and that I liked it. I decided to give it a go at age 28 and still enjoyed. Yes, now, some of the romance and struggles seem a tad childish, but the character IS childish, so I suppose it is par for the course. None the less, the basic message, 'everyone who is worth liking doesn't always fit in' is still a good one.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the perfect book for adolescent girls who are interested in love stories. The novel uses language that is true to the times and deals with the subject of Quakers and witch craft. I read this book when I was an adolescent and fell in love with Kit. Her character really comes to live throughout the pages of the book. Upon reading it again, I have renewed my appreciation for the main character and her trials and tribulations.

I originally read this way back in jr. high and sadly only remember being entranced by it--not recalling any of the plot. I finally got around to the rereading and recalled why I had the original feeling of enchantment. This is one good book.

Kit Tyler is a sixteen-year-old girl who leaves Barbados after her grandfather's death for the more austere world of Puritan New England to say with her aunt's family. But Kit is completely unprepared for the ways of these people. Even so, she manages to grow in unimaginable ways as she connects with people with whom she would have never seen herself.

And it's not a simple moralistic book. It's a book about a girl coming of age. Unlike other books of the Puritans, there are no villains, just those who are different and it's amazing to see Kit come to understand that.

The characters are entrancing and dimensional, the setting is described in an honest prose that only shows Speare's love of New England.

It deserves its Newberry.

I rmember reading this book as a child, so when I found it again as an adult, I knew I HAD to have it again.

This book is captivating and impossible to put down even now as I approach age 30. As a girl I found it spellbinding, the kind of book that makes your own world and time dissolve around you and casts directly in the life and time of the characters. It is far to rare that an author can weave that kind of story. Elizabeth George Speare certainly has that gift. Don't hesitate to buy this for the children in your life. Also by E. G. Speare be sure and check out The Witch of Blackbird Pond and one of my all-time favorites, Calico Captive. Enjoy and keep a clock nearby as you're surely going to lose track of time while reading this book.

The voice reading Sign of the Beaver was pleasant and easy to listen to. Since I was not listening to the whole book in one sitting, it was difficult to find where on the CD I left off. It would be more efficient to have the track for each chapter labeled on the CD.

As a fourth grade educator, I would never introduce this book to my students as anything else other than an example of popular culture that perpetuates stereotypes of Native Americans. Attean and other Native American characters speak in broken English, giving the reader the impression that these characters are inferior to their White counterparts. The terminology used is highly offensive (squaw)for both Native people and for women. The relationship that Attean has with girls in his tribe as well as with animals is unrealistic and down right inaccurate. Joseph Bruchac and Michael Dorris are two authors which do an excellent job of writing from the Native American perspective.

I have used Sign of the Beaver as a read aloud just about every year I have taught! I teach 4th grade, and have always had great reviews from my students. The text and vocabulary are advanced for some fourth graders, so it is a terrific way to expand their vocabulary and knowledge without having frustrated readers. I have collected a class set over the years, allowing every child to read along. I highly recommend this book!

I really enjoyed reading Ella Enchanted. It was a very good book. It is about a royal girl named Ella, who had a problem. When she was born a fairy gave her a gift the gift of obedience. Ella hates this gift. It is always getting in her way.
When her mother dies she is devistated. She can't tell anybody about the curse.
She finds friendship with a young prince. Her father decides that it would be better if she went to boarding school with her two fathers friend's daughters.
The girls find out that Ella is obedient. But they do not know why. She decides to run away.
She ends up with her father and he has decided to marry the woman. She is not pleased. But her guyfriend wants her to marry him. What about the curse? You have to read the book to find out!

I'll start with the books I haven't read. Because I haven't read "Dear Mr. Henshaw" and "One Eyed-Cat" I had to give this collection only four stars though I'd love to give it five. "Dear Mr. Henshaw" was part of my elementary school library. Everyone was demanding that I read Mr. Henshaw, but there were so many other books to read so I never got around to it. I had never heard of "One Eyed-Cat" when I was young, but from what I hear it is worth the read.

Scott O'Dell is one of my all time favorite authors. I have read "Island of the Blue Dolphins" a million times and would read it a million more. It is the story that first drew me to the Native American culture and his other works were equally enticing. The story of Karana's survival alone on the island of her birth and the life and family she makes for herself there is magnificent. Her neverending yearning for her people, but continuing love for the home she makes creates a bittersweet ending when she leaves for her people. It is made even more sad when in his author's notes O'Dell revealed that her people never made it to their new home and that is why they never sent for her. Scot O'Dell writes an alluting tale of a woman who must survive on her own. I would heartily recommend any book he has written.

Elizabeth George Speare is not far behind on my favorite author list. I also read "The Sign of the Beaver" a million times. It is a wonderful story of a wary friendship between a teenage white settler left to care for their new home while his father goes to fetch his mother, sister, and the soon to be born baby and a teenage Indian who has inherited the bitterness of his culture to the white man. Together they teach each other what is needed to know to survive in the other's world. Another bittersweet ending, this is a wonderful story about how two radically different people can learn to respect the other and what they have to offer. "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" is the story about a girl from the Caribbean who is tossed into her own survival story when she must live with her Puritan relatives. Here, her culture of clashes with the rigid structure of the Puritan people who consider her a hopeless sinner. They radically distrust her and it comes to a head when she is accused of witchcraft. The only drawback of this story is that it helps to understand the Puritans and it is my experience that their history is learned in highschool when one is just a tad old for her works.