Every year in the foothill streams of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, young, wild salmon emerge from rock nests, and at different times, begin migration down the river to the Central Valley and ultimately the Pacific Ocean. Their strategies are to leave at different sizes and times during the spring. These small fish, some very small, face many challenges and obstacles as they battle to reach the sea. Their life’s mission: get big and return to their birthplace to mate. But which way out gets them home? Based on one of the author’s scientific publications, and illustrated by her, this rhyming picture book for children explains the juvenile salmon journey and answers the question of which out-migration strategy works. Informative and entertaining, Who’s Coming Home? introduces kids to science and how to answer questions about nature using it.

Salmon specialists throughout the Pacific Coast indicate that the winter-run Chinook salmon is restricted to California's Sacramento River system. The characteristics and habits of the race are unique in the following respects: Fresh-water holding period, December to April; spawning period, April into July. The up-migration is concurrent with the late segments of the fall run, but the adults are distinguishable by the green condition of the gonads. The down-migration is concurrent with that of the spring-run fry, but the migrants are 2-inch or larger fingerlings. Evidence is lacking to determine whether there is an earlier down-migration of fry. The race appears to hold great promise as a stock to be introduced into areas where May-August temperatures are 42.5 degrees - 57.5 degrees F., for it supports superb angling during the fresh-water holding period. Water temperatures in May through August are seen as the factor limiting the natural extension of the range of the race.