Petroglyphs and pictographs - carvings and paintings on rocks - done by the earliest human inhabitants of North America, can be found from Nova Scotia to the deserts of the Southwest. Yvette La Pierre explores what is known and how it was determined, as well as what is not known, about these ancient forms of art and communication and the people who created them. Though the illustrations and the fictionalized scenarios that open each chapter seem to assume that rock artists were always male, the unique information presented here makes this a valuable text, which includes photographs of rock art throughout North America. Among the "Sites to Visit" listed in the final chapter is Roche a Cri State Park in Wisconsin. (Ages 8-12)

This beautifully illustrated introduction to petroglyphs and pictographs--images carved and painted on stone--images carved and painted on stone--records a diversity of images rapidly vanishing from canyon walls, rock outcroppings, and caves across North America.