The Buffalo Are Back

From the creators of The Wolves Are Back, this graceful story explores how the American buffalo almost became extinct. Minor’s striking naturalistic paintings of buffalo and a dust bowl landscape mirror George’s sturdy, reflective prose: “When the buffalo lived on the prairie, their sharp hooves helped rain reach down into the earth, and the tough roots of the grass held in the wet.” Theodore Roosevelt’s establishment of the National Bison Range offers hope for buffalo, and in a moving final spread, a Wichita Indian man counting buffalo for the census welcomes “America’s two hundred thousand and eighty-first buffalo” calf. A tribute to an American icon and to the power of preservation. Ages 5–8. (May)