The Sign of the Beaver
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
40 free The Sign of the Beaver trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Sign of the Beaver is one of the most widely taught novels in American schools. A boy on the edge of thirteen is left to guard a new log cabin in the eighteenth-century wilderness, and almost everything that can go wrong does. What saves him is an uneasy bargain with a Native boy named Attean, which slowly turns into one of the best-drawn friendships in historical fiction for young people. This quiz follows the story from the first chapter to the last. Expect questions on what Matt loses and what he learns, the customs and beliefs of Attean's people, the choice Matt faces when autumn comes, and how the story ends. A few questions step outside the plot to cover the author, the prizes the book won and its screen adaptation. It works as a final quiz after finishing the book, as a check for a class or book club, or as a refresher for anyone who met Matt and Attean years ago. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Sign of the Beaver, what does Matt hurl at a charging mother bear to buy Attean time?
A dead rabbit
A dead rabbit, the first he had ever shot with his bow, hit the bear on the head and gave Attean a moment to fit an arrow. Afterwards Attean paid Matt his highest compliment: he had moved as fast as one of Attean's own people.
Q 02In The Sign of the Beaver, which novel does Matt give Attean's grandfather as thanks for saving him?
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe was one of only two books in the cabin, the other being the family Bible. Attean later scoffs that its hero had a whole ship's cargo to live on.
Q 03In The Sign of the Beaver, what does the beaver mark cut into a tree tell those who pass it?
A clan's hunting ground
A clan's hunting ground was marked this way, and Attean says no other hunter would take game there. Matt wonders whether settlers like his own people would show the same respect.
Q 04In The Sign of the Beaver, what attacks Matt when he climbs a tree, sick of eating plain fish?
A swarm of bees
A swarm of bees poured out when he tugged at the rotten bark around their hole, and he hurt his ankle as he fled to the pond. Attean and his grandfather, who had been watching, pulled him out.
Q 05In The Sign of the Beaver, what does Matt give Attean when the two friends part for the last time?
A silver watch
A silver watch handed down through his family was the only valuable thing Matt owned. Attean, who had just left him his beloved dog, understood at once how much it meant.
Q 06In The Sign of the Beaver, why does Matt refuse to leave for the north with Attean's people?
He must wait for his family
He must wait for his family, because his father trusted him to hold the cabin until they came. Attean's grandfather respects the choice and shakes his hand.
Q 07In The Sign of the Beaver, what does a stranger steal after Matt gives him supper and shelter?
His father's rifle
His father's rifle had hung above the cabin door, and the thief was gone with it when Matt woke. Matt was left to live on fish from the creek.
Q 08In The Sign of the Beaver, what must Attean find alone in the forest before he can become a hunter?
His manitou
His manitou, a guiding spirit, comes only after days alone in the woods without food. Attean returns with his head shaved except for a topknot, carrying himself like a man.
Q 09In The Sign of the Beaver, Matt's family finally reaches the cabin just before which holiday?
Christmas
Christmas was only days away when Matt saw his father dragging a sled through the snow. The family had been due back in August.
Q 10In The Sign of the Beaver, what must Matt do for Attean in return for gifts of fresh meat?
Teach him to read
Teach him to read: that was the treaty Attean's grandfather proposed, so the boy could one day understand the papers white men asked his people to sign. Attean was furious at the idea.
Q 11The Sign of the Beaver is set in the wilderness of which present-day state?
Maine
Maine was also where the author found the true story behind the novel, about a boy left alone in the woods for a summer and befriended by his Native neighbors.
Q 12In The Sign of the Beaver, what is the name of Attean's grandfather, who nurses Matt back to health?
Saknis
Saknis leads the beaver people and had quietly kept an eye on the cabin since Matt was left there. He comes back after the rescue with food and a pair of moccasins.
Q 13In The Sign of the Beaver, a bear gets into the unbarred cabin and empties Matt's keg of what?
Molasses
Molasses was the treasure of his food store, and the bear ripped open the flour sack too, tracking it all over the cabin floor. Matt was furious with himself for not barring the door.
Q 21In The Sign of the Beaver, Attean storms off when a man in Matt's storybook kneels and becomes what?
A slave
A slave to his white rescuer is what the man becomes, and Attean shouts that he should have died rather than kneel. Matt, who had never questioned the scene, softens the story from then on.
Q 22In The Sign of the Beaver, what material tells Attean that a white man set the trap holding a fox?
Iron
Iron traps were never used by Attean's people, and the fox was suffering, yet he would not touch it. Matt could not understand a code that left an animal in pain.
Q 23In The Sign of the Beaver, what does Attean do in his own language right after killing the bear?
He asks its forgiveness
Q 14In The Sign of the Beaver, what is the name of the stranger in a ragged army coat who visits Matt?
Ben
Ben says he sometimes lives among the Indians and is on the run after trouble in a nearby town. He tells tall tales with himself as the hero, and Matt never feels easy around him.
Q 15In The Sign of the Beaver, Matt's family comes from which Massachusetts town near Boston?
Quincy
Quincy was so far from the new cabin that Matt's father expected the round trip to take six or seven weeks. The family had bought their plot of wild land the winter before.
Q 16In The Sign of the Beaver, which device does Attean show Matt how to build to catch small game?
A snare
A snare made from materials found in the forest explained why the animals Attean brought never had bullet holes in them. Once Matt could set his own, he no longer needed to be fed.
Q 17Which two-time Newbery Medal winner wrote the frontier survival novel The Sign of the Beaver?
Elizabeth George Speare
Elizabeth George Speare was in her seventies when the book came out in 1983, more than two decades after her medal-winning novels.
Q 18In The Sign of the Beaver, where does Matt sleep after the bear feast in Attean's village?
An empty wigwam
An empty wigwam was his bed after hours of dancing, storytelling and bowls of stew. By daylight the village that had seemed so mysterious looked shabby and poor.
Q 19In The Sign of the Beaver, why is Attean left behind when the village men go deer hunting?
He owns no gun
He owns no gun, and buying one would cost many beaver skins at a time when the animals are growing scarce. Matt begins to see how poor the village has become.
Q 20In The Sign of the Beaver, which Bible story does Attean match with a tale from his own people?
Noah's ark
Noah's ark reminds Attean of Gluskabe, a hero who lived through a great flood and made the animals and people. Matt is left wondering how two peoples came to tell such similar stories.
He asks its forgiveness, telling the animal he had not wanted to kill her. The women of the village then come to cut up the meat and carry it home.
Q 24In The Sign of the Beaver, what is the name of Attean's sister, who helps Matt free a trapped dog?
Marie
Marie translates Matt's plea for her grandmother, then begs to go with him and runs back through the forest to the trap. Matt later thinks how much she is like his own sister.
Q 25In The Sign of the Beaver, what does Matt forfeit after losing a game of chance to the village boys?
His shirt
His shirt went to the winners of a game played much like dice, though Attean's grandmother made her grandson fetch it back before Matt went home.
Q 26In The Sign of the Beaver, which illness strikes Matt's family and delays their journey by months?
Typhus
Typhus kept the whole family in bed for weeks, and Matt's mother had it worst of all. She was still so weak on arrival that Matt had to help her through the cabin door.
Q 27In The Sign of the Beaver, how does Matt's father tell him to keep count of the passing days?
Notches cut in sticks
Notches cut in sticks, one for every day, were meant to count off the weeks until August. By winter Matt had lost track and could only guess at the date.
Q 28In The Sign of the Beaver, what does Matt cut up to make himself warm breeches for winter?
A blanket
A blanket became a crude pair of breeches once his own clothes wore thin, and the skin of an animal he trapped gave him a hat.
Q 29The author of The Sign of the Beaver won a Newbery Medal for which novel set in colonial New England?
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Witch of Blackbird Pond won in 1959 and was only her second novel. Its heroine leaves Barbados at sixteen to live with Puritan relatives.
Q 30The Sign of the Beaver was the first book ever to win which prize for historical fiction?
The Scott O'Dell Award
The Scott O'Dell Award was founded in 1982, but its judges found no book of sufficient merit until this one in 1984. Its founder wrote Island of the Blue Dolphins.