Kiva thinks she's stepped over into the dark side of craziness. Literally. For when her twelfth birthday approaches, strange creatures appear to her, both at home and at her middle school. No one else seems to see them. Plus she begins to hear the twin makataes, or spirit bears living inside her, one gentle and one angry. Her grandmother, Hota has advised her to wisely choose which bear to feed, for one day Kiva will inherit her grandmother's abilities as a YaYa Hike, a powerful shape-shifting shaman. But Kiva is convinced her grandmother is crazy and fears she has inherited Hota's crazy genes. Then a coyote wanders into the end-of-the-school-year dance and singles Kiva out by sniffing her in front of the entire student body. Already considered the school loser, her classmates begin to wonder if she was the cause of the animal's strange behavior. Hoping to escape her embarrassment, Kiva leaves town with her parents for a weekend trip to her grandparents' ranch in southern Colorado. It's there she receives the text from her best friend with the biggest blow of all. The most popular girl in school has spoken. The friendship is over. Blind with hurt and anger, Kiva runs away, disappearing into the forbidden canyon behind the cabin. She soon becomes lost in the vast mystical forest that lines the canyon walls. As she winds her way among the trees, mysterious creatures intersect her path and lead her to Scout-a girl-shaped boulder and member of the Stone Nation called upon by the Everything Maker to guide Kiva to her destiny. Scout teaches Kiva the twelve lessons to becoming a YaYa Hike. And as she instructs, she shares with Kiva the danger that faces the Elders of the Stone Nation. If someone doesn't help, they will soon be destroyed by a heartless and greedy man who will stop at nothing to find the oil he thinks lies beneath the ancient and magnificent stones. In the end, Kiva must decide. Will she heed Scout's urgings, accept that she is the legendary YaYa Hike of Hota's stories and embrace her new abilities to save the Stone Nation? Or will she listen to her father's logic and find her way home before she loses the only friend she has ever known? Kiva's path becomes clear in The Forbidden Canyon, the first book in the Kiva and the Stone Nation series."