Artist Lisa Fifield’s watercolor paintings and quilts have earned her an international reputation. Here Fifield, an enrolled member of the Wisconsin Oneida Nation, shares paintings that reflect her “vision of people and animals helping each other.” Her lovely and dramatic images are inspired by Indian stories and traditions. They feature Native peoples interacting with creatures of the natural world in scenes that reflect the sense of balance that occurs when the two are in harmony. Writer Lise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Plains Ojibway, has written brief, single-page stories to accompany each of Fifield’s richly hued, earth-tone paintings. The narratives, also drawn from Native lore and traditions, give children the means of entering each of the paintings more deeply. They also capture a sense of the oral tradition that has sustained the many stories that inspired both the artist and the author of this work. (Ages 7-10)

In Bears Make Rock Soup, writer Lise Erdrich and painter Lisa Fifield honor their Native American ancestral traditions. As winter falls, women fill the bellies of hungry bears with sweet stories so they will sleep till spring. Crows warn of enemies in pursuit so that a tribe may escape to safety. Children care for an abandoned moose they find crying for its mother. And animals of all stripes and feathers gather to pay respects to a beloved chief who has fallen while defending his people.