In the midst of a bitter winter storm, a brave young girl ventures out to a neighboring village to get the healing herbs her family needs to recover from a disease. Her journey is long and hard but she manages to get there and back, even though she loses her moccasins in the snow. Now each spring, flowers that resemble her moccasins, called ma-ki-sin waa-big-waan by the Ojibwe people and ladyslippers by the European settlers, grow along the path the young girl walked many years ago. An appealing pourquoi tale features a plucky young heroine living in envrons that will look very familiar to children in the upper Midwest. (Ages 4-8)

Never pick a lady slipper. If any part is picked, the entire flower dies. And it grows there, in the northern woods, to mark the courage and strength of a small girl who lived long ago—a girl who saved all of her people from a terrible disease by listening carefully to the whispering snow, the rumbling ice, and the dancing northern lights.