The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George

Yesterday the concerned librarian had to break it to me that I had more than the limit allotted of books at home. I had to smile. My response was, how could it be any other way when I have all of these homeschooled kids and each is learning a different thing?

The introductory remark above was just to make the point that we have been browsing through many good books, but it has also been a very busy beginning of the school year! Yet near the many youth biographies we have been checking out to go along with our History studies, I bumped into this new beautiful book on the natural world:

The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George, 2010 Dutton Juvenile.

This wonderful picture book tells the whole story of what happened to the grass in the American Prairie--and to the Buffaloes. I loved the same author's The Wolves Are Back and love this one even more. My husband has worked in a tallgrass prairie preserve in Kansas where the Buffalo roamed so this book hits home too. The story of destruction and sad lack of vision is told, but the book stays away from useless finger pointing or a hopeless, gloomy message. Indeed, much the opposite way, after reading it to your child you feel as if there is much hope for us and for the natural world as we learn about it! Kudos to the author and to the illustrator who did more than justice to the text. Absolutely gorgeous paintings!