"Manitou Spring author Mary Finley's White Grizzly is a historical fiction targeted toward the young reader age 10 and above, but it is a jolly good read for almost anyone. Julio, a lad of 15, is journeying from New Mexico to Colorado to Missouri to find his ancestry. Born of white parents, adopted by Mexicans, befriended by Cheyenne Indians, he finds himself torn between three worlds. At Bent's Fort in Colorado he meets and travels east on the Santa Fe Trail to Kansas Landing in Missouri with William Bent, herding Bent's sheep in return for being able to accompany the wagons. Along the way, there are many adventures, including an encounter with a grizzly bear and a kidnapping by Pawnees.

Like William Bent, there are other "real" characters in this story such as the slave couple that befriends Julio, Dick and Charlotte Green, as well as a pair of unsavory characters, Christopher and Gallatin Searcy. The politics are real as well. In 1845, war between the United States and Mexico was threatening. Slavery divided the United States and would eventually lead to the Civil War. The places that Julio visits can still be located today. The author not only grew up near Bent's Fort but also followed the Santa Fe Trail in researching this book.

In order to distinguish between what is fact and what is fiction, Finley includes an appendix at the end of the book entitled, "What's Fact? What's Fiction?" She refers to specific pages and discusses places, events and characters that have a basis in fact. There is also a glossary in which Spanish and Indian words and expressions are defined. There is a lot to learn in the book and it is presented with skill and care. It is a true page-turner."