The Buffalo Are Back

by Jean Craighead George

Overview

The buffalo, an American icon once nearly extinct, has made a comeback. This stirring picture book tells the dramatic story, following bison from the Plains Indians to the cowboys, Teddy Roosevelt to the Dust Bowl, and from the brink of extinction to the majestic herds that now roam our national parks. Paired with gorgeous paintings by landscape artist Wendell Minor, Jean Craighead George’s engaging text will inspire a new generation to understand and protect nature’s delicate balance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781430109785
Publisher:	Live Oak Media
Publication date:	05/31/2011
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jean Craighead George was the preeminent nature writer for children. She is the author of My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves, and her work spanned 50 years. She died in May 2012 at age 93. 

After completing his studies at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Wendell Minor began creating original designs for book publishers in New York City. He has created jacket illustrations for more than 2000 books, and has illustrated dozens of books for children, including America The Beautiful and Yankee Doodle America. He lives in Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 4—With the call of the meadowlark and the bawling of a newborn bison calf opening Jean Craighead George's book (Dutton, 2010), the symbiotic relationship of the buffalo, the American Indian, and the grass are chronicled. The almost complete demise of the American bison and the tall grass prairie in the mid 1800s is described, as well as their comeback through the efforts of environmentalists such as Teddy Roosevelt. The story successfully combines fiction and non-fiction elements to present the history and future of the land and its occupants. Wendell Minor, whose beautiful watercolor illustrations enhance the text, also simply narrates the story in a tone that reflects the prairie. Of special note is the music of Chris Kubie that evokes the atmosphere of the setting through the use of the flute and other instruments. Other sound effects, particularly the meadowlark song, transport listeners to a gentler time and place. Page-turn signals are optional, and well-placed pauses give listeners/readers time to peruse the book.—Ann Brownson, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston

School Library Journal

Jean Craighead George’s words and Wendell Minor’s paintings and narration give an evocative portrait of the impact of the buffalo on its prairie home. The audio begins with peaceful sounds—birds chirping and soft music punctuated by occasional grunts and snorts of buffalo. Then the music turns dramatic, and the sound effects mark the rifles of buffalo hunters, the chugging of steam tractors destroying the grasses, and the disastrous chomping of grasshoppers. Wendell Minor’s voice is deep and authoritative. His pictures mirror his storytelling. Sweeping prairies dotted with buffalo give way to panicking men who try to beat off grasshoppers and then dark skies filled with dust. Finally, blue skies and grasslands with buffalo aplenty accompany Minor’s last powerful words: “The buffalo are back.” S.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

Beginning and ending with the joyous birth of a calf, George describes the eradication of bison from the American plains, subsequent ecosystem damage, return of the species and restoration of the tall grass prairie in this companion to The Wolves Are Back (2008). The author makes the interconnections between the animals and the native prairie grasses clear, emphasizing her point through repetition. Explaining that the eradication of the buffalo was a strategy for wiping out the Plains Indians, George's sympathies are evident. She quotes Sioux Chief Sitting Bull's description of the buffalo's disappearance as "a death-wind for my people" and points out that the dust storms that followed were a death wind for settlers as well. Unfortunately, the book strays into fiction when a young Wichita Indian buffalo-census-taker watches a new calf at the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, whose herd of only 13 (not 300) bison was reintroduced only in the fall of 2009 and has not yet grown. Minor's expressive and lushly detailed paintings have texture and depth, supporting and enhancing the text. Environmental good news. (sources, websites) (Informational picture book. 5-10)

Kirkus Reviews