Buffalo Music

by Tracey Fern, Lauren Castillo (Illustrator)

Overview

Beautifully told by Tracey Fern and warmly illustrated by Caldecott Honor winner Lauren Castillo, this is the story of one woman's quest to save the buffalo that once roamed the West. Based on the work of Mary Ann Goodnight, a pioneer credited with forming one of the first captive buffalo herds in the late 1800s and saving them from extinction. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618723416
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	05/19/2008
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 9.18(h) x 0.44(d)
Lexile:	NC860L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Tracey Fern is the author of several children’s books including Buffalo Music, an ALA Notable Book. She lives with her family in Newtown, Massachusetts and can be visited online at traceyfern.com
 

Lauren Castillo has illustrated many picture books and has also written and illustrated several, including the Caldecott Honor book Nana in the City. She lives in Harrisburg, PA, and you can also find her at www.laurencastillo.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter @studiocastillo.

Editorial Reviews

The speed with which hunters on the frontier of the American west nearly wiped out the buffalo is a black mark in the story of our push toward the Pacific coast. We are redeemed by the quiet determination of people like Mary Ann Goodnight. Her story is told through the character of Molly, a pioneer who settled with her husband on the rim of the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas in 1876. When they arrived, huge buffalo herds still thundered across the prairie. Within a few years almost all had been slaughtered. Molly tells her story with rich language replete with metaphors and expressions that evoke the early frontier and the hard working people who settled the west. She bears witness to the huge number of buffalo whose life-sounds were music to her, surrounding her and comforting her through the lonely days and long winters. When the herds disappear, the silence is oppressive. Then a cowhand, who knows Molly to have a way with animals and a soft place in her heart for lost critters, brings two abandoned buffalo calves to her. Word of her skill at nursing the calves spreads and more are brought to her doorstep. They form the basis of a herd and she soon has over one hundred buffalo. When Yellowstone National Park seeks to rebuild its buffalo herd, she sends four head. With similar gifts, Molly helped to rebuild herds in Oklahoma and Montana. This book documents a sad passage in American history redeemed by the spirit and determination of individuals who understood the importance of preserving the buffalo herds. The illustrations and muted colors evoke the tumbleweed rawness of the prairie and the isolation and self-reliance essential to life on the prairie. This book would be a good resourcein a study of pioneer life and the history of buffalo herds for an elementary school classroom or library. Reviewer: Hazel Buys

Children's Literature - Hazel Buys

K-Gr 4- A story based on the actions of Mary Ann Goodnight, a pioneer who made great strides in saving the buffalo from extinction in the late 1800s. Molly's first-person narrative offers alliterative descriptions of the sounds made by animals native to her West Texas home, including the "huff-huff" of buffalo breath and the thunder of their pounding feet. Soon, this everyday music is replaced by the noise of gunfire, as hunters slaughter the creatures for profit. When a cowhand brings her two orphan calves, Molly nurtures them and many more, developing the first captive buffalo herd. She even sends several yearlings to Yellowstone National Park to help reestablish their herd. The story ends with Molly wistfully hoping that the buffalo and their music will return to the plains. Fern's lyrical text and Castillo's folk-style artwork beautifully capture the era and events. Done in warm, earthy hues, the mixed-media illustrations depict a rugged landscape of grays and browns speckled with touches of color-wildflowers or bright blooms on a tree. Outlined in thick black lines, the characters shimmer with vitality and Molly's affection for her fuzzy-coated orphans is tenderly depicted. Buffalo Music is perfectly suited to a young audience, clearly conveying the magnitude of the decimation and the importance of conservation efforts.-Lynne Mattern, Robert Seaman School, Jericho, NY

School Library Journal

When Molly first settled in West Texas, she did her chores to "buffalo music," the noises made by massive herds of buffalo grazing nearby. Soon, however, buffalo hunters arrived to slaughter the animals they thought would last forever. "Forever came fast." In six years the buffalo were gone. Molly's grief over their loss abates when a fellow settler brings her two orphaned buffalo calves to raise. They thrive and word spreads: Soon Molly's herd numbers 100. When Yellowstone National Park decides to rebuild its herd, some of Molly's buffalo become founding members. Molly's story, though fictional, is based on the real life of pioneer Mary Ann Goodnight, whose homebred buffalo eventually populated not only Yellowstone but other wildlife refuges and several zoos. Fern's debut is auspicious. Her homespun expressions ("fending off wolves and poachers with the long end of my rifle") allow Molly's straightforward sentiment to shine. Castillo's smudgy illustrations recall Glen Rounds and invest both Molly and the buffalo calves with enormous personality. Together they make this story one with widespread appeal. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews