Written by Ellen Jackson
Illustrated by Woodleigh Marx Hubbard
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN 0-689-80480-6

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"When the first people came from the underworld, it is said they came up through a reed in the ocean...But the new land was dry and parched." First Man needs only once drop of fresh water in order to make a stream or a lake. But each animal who volunteers to go back to ring water fails - until success comes from an unlikely source.
Ellen Jackson's sparkling retelling of this Navaho creation and evolution myth speaks to eternal questions as well as contemporary concerns about ecology. Paired with Woodleigh Marx Hubbard's visual interpretation, The Precious Gift is as refreshing as a new-found pool of clean water.

"Best of all, Hubbard's gouache illustrations, showing a terrain dotted with rainbow-colored foliage and framed by skies with snail-like whorls of clouds, effuse the savory freshness of a new-born world.
Publisher's Weekly

"The palette is dominated by the warm orange-yellows of the desert and the cool green-blues of the ocean: what is singular about Hubbard's style is the idiosyncratic shapes into which all the creatures are transformed- oddly flat and amorphous and then shaded to give the effect of wafer-like thickness. These colorful, swirling compositions and the eloquent text will surely enrapture readers and listeners alike.
Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW