In 1868 the splendors of Yosemite Valley were still known just to a few intrepid outdoorsmen. The earliest promoter of tourism was the English journalist James Hutchings, whose daughter Floy was the first white child born in the valley. The feisty little girl—also known as Squirrel—had to fend for herself much of the time and was considered alarmingly wild by her father's guests. When strong, competent, poetic John Muir is hired by Hutchings to run a sawmill and improve the hotel, Floy becomes his inquisitive shadow as he builds himself a cabin over a stream, talks to flowers, listens to snow, and watches the wind. Floy, a little force of nature determined never to grow up because she'd have to be a lady, and Muir, looking to discover laws of nature by which he himself can live free from society's expectations, are primed to find common ground in Yosemite. In the time that they know each other, Muir comes to terms with his mission in the larger world and gently shows Floy how to truly see her awesome surroundings.

Using historic events as background, Emily Arnold McCully imagines how the great naturalist, whose own inner child kept his soul and senses ever open to possibility, might have clicked with the sprite called Squirrel as they roamed their wilderness paradise.

From the dust jacket