This transformation tale, one of the most popular stories among the Haida, Tlingit, and other Pacific Northwest coastal tribes, is retold here with careful attention to detail. Author Barbara Diamond Goldin first heard this legend while volunteering as a storyteller on an American Indian reservation in Washington state. She has researched the story with considerable accuracy and authenticity, making some choices in the unfolding of the plot, since many variations of it exist. Goldin is ably assisted by a newcomer to children’s books, Andrew Plewes, whose exquisite paintings capture the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest as well as the rich and artistic culture of its First Nations people.

Set in a mythic time when people could change into animals and vice versa, the story is about a spoiled, haughty, young chief’s daughter who does not respect bears. One day, while berry picking, she slips and drops her basket of berries. Coming to her aid are two handsome young men who accompany her, not back to her village, but to a different place altogether, where she is held a prisoner of the Bear People. In a Rumpelstiltskin-like scene, she is able to convince her captors that she has magical powers. Eventually she marries the son of the chief of her adopted tribe, bears twin children, and comes to love her new people very much. But in one dramatic moment, her husband, while in his bear shape, is killed by the woman’s brother, who is hunting. At this point she realizes that human survival is linked to animals and that she must show her own people how to treat all animals with love and respect. As with all native legends, there is much more than just a small lesson being taught to the next generation.

In a veritable feast of cultural detail, the paintings show wondrous aspects of traditional native life – jewelry, clothing, totem pole motifs, baskets, and blankets – in the rain forest and mountains. The story holds together in a gentle way, maintaining a close connection to its original sources. The Girl Who Lived With the Bears deserves a place in any collection of First Nations legends.