The legend of Sleeping Bear tells the story of a happy Mother Bear and her two cubs living near the Lake Michigan shore in Wisconsin, until a fire forces them to swim across Lake Michigan. The cubs do not make it to the other side, and Mother Bear waits atop a hill for them until the sands slowly cover over her. The great spirit of the land recognized her love for her children and raised them out of the water as two islands, the North and South Manitou Islands. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and I really enjoyed the author's creative interpretation of the legend. This book would be appropriate for grades 3-5 to discuss legends and possibly address the lay of the land before it was occupied by settlers.

This has been a family favorite for years in my house. This beautifully illustrated tale of a mother's love for her two bear cubs is cleverly braided into the formation of one of Michigan's graceful landforms. It is a wonderful book of which mothers with two children can easily relate, but it is a story of all mothers' love for their children as well. I highly recommend this story for anyone to read. ( )

This was a sad yet well written book. When reading this book I was wondering what age group would you read this story too. I think it is a great book to build a discussion off of legends and folktales. I think the language use in this book is very sensitive, which is good for younger readers. ( )

A well written book telling the folktale of the sleeping bear dunes. The pictures are absolutely breathtaking, incredibly drawn. It would be a great book to share during a unit on legends and folktales. ( )

This book is a lovely version of the Legend of Sleeping Bear. Before the story, there is a description of what a legend is which I thought was nice to include because it is important for children to understand that this story is not factual on how the Manitou Islands were made. This story is very well done (kinda sad) and I loved the illustrations! ( )