Inspired by cave drawings made more than thirty thousand years ago in what is now France, and the child's footprint found nearby, this book imagines a young Paleolithic artist who notices familiar images hidden in the world around him. He points out a woolly mammoth in the clouds and a bear-shaped stone to his family members, but none of them see what he does. It's not until a close encounter with an actual woolly mammoth that he thinks to outline the creature's shape later that evening on a cave wall lit by firelight. Finally others can share his vision, and although they call it magic, the boy shows them how to draw too. The final page shows a contemporary version of that first artist, telling readers "And that's how-if you'd been around more than thirty thousand years ago-you might have invented drawing. And it's still magic!" (Ages 4-8)