As spring comes to the mountains, a great bear remains sleeping. His absence is noted, and village people worry that the grandfather bear has not survived the winter. So great is the concern that one young boy from the village climbs high into the mountains to look for the bear. Exhausted by the climb, the boy dreams of finding and waking the bear. Together boy and bear join other bears dancing to the rhythm of thunder. It is this dance that the boy later teaches his people. Hobbs' fictionalized version of the traditional Ute bear dance story is enhanced by the large picture-book format featuring Kastner's double-spread oil paintings, in which the illustrator cues the dream sequences, subtly exposing the bear and the boy as part of the landscape. Kastner's evocative dance scenes add a fine note of drama to the story. (Reviewed April 15, 1997)

Full-page oil paintings illustrate this well-written story. A boy called Short Tail goes up the mountain to look for the Great Bear, then dreams that he dances with the bears to celebrate the end of winter. In an author's note, Hobbs explains that this story about the origin of the Ute Bear Dance is based on a version 'common among the Utes of Colorado and Utah.'