The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

This is an excellent historical fiction for 4 - 5th graders.  Boys especially will enjoy the adventures, but girls too since I enjoyed it. It's about a 12 - 13 year old boy learning to survive in the wilderness, on his own in 1768.

Synopsis:
Young Matt and his father travel to Maine to stake out land for their family and build a home that his mother and sister can move into.  They left the girls back home until the house is ready.  Matt's father eventually goes back and leaves Matt to keep up the house and care for the garden so there is food when the family returns in 7 weeks.  After his gun is stolen, Matt befriends Attean, a native American boy, who teaches him the survival methods of his people. Their friendship deepens, and we learn to see white America through the eyes of a native resident.