This engaging retelling of the Southern Sierra Miwok legend features the great Yosemite Valley monolith, El Capitan, and how it came to be. Mother Grizzly Bear thinks that her two playful cubs are wrestling and having fun along the Merced River while she is checking her fish traps. When she returns to join her sons, however, she discovers the cubs are nowhere to be found. It takes an unlikely hero to bring her cubs safely home. Populated with characters based on real Sierra animals, this story is about the value of all beings, the nature of courage, and the idea that being a hero has very little to do with one's size. Includes notes about the life and culture of the Southern Sierra Miwok and a bibliography.
