Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "where-the-buffaloes-begin"
"Clotilda", "Redcoats and Petticoats" and "Where the Buffaloes Begin"
A little history, a little fantasy and an American Indian story occupied this week.
Redcoats and Petticoats
4 stars
Author: Katherine Kirkpatrick
Illustrator: Ronald Himler
History texts tell of big battles. They ignore the many tales about regular people trying to cope and help win the war.
During the Revolutionary War, the redcoats arrive in Thomas' village arresting his father and chasing him and his mother out of their house. They take up residence in a nearby cottage. Each day Thomas is told to row to a far bay to look for a whaleboat. As he does so, he fishes and collects clams.
Thomas doesn't really know what is going on or why his mother seems to always be hanging out washing on the clothesline. Yet this work was very important as Thomas finds out after the war.
The illustrations show the clothing, the area and the people well. This matters as these are now things people have no real knowledge of or understanding of what life was like before all of the conveniences and machines we take for granted now.
Clotilda
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Jack Kent
Clotilda is a fairy godmother except she has no one to be a godmother for. Two children find her. One shrugs off her magic as things that would happen anyway. The other is willing to enjoy the magic of these happenings and having a fairy godmother is one of them.
The illustrations are colorful and fun as is the story.
Where the Buffaloes Begin
5 stars favorite
Author: Olaf Baker
Illustrator: Stephen Gammell
Originally written in 1915, this story begins with an ancient Indian legend of a lake far to the south where, at the right time, the buffaloes rise up out of the waters and race off across the plains. The boy Lone Wolf dreams of seeing the buffaloes rise up out of the water and goes in search of the lake. This is the story of his search and the exciting results.
The illustrations are pencil with a softness to give the story a feeling of being an old legend.
Redcoats and Petticoats
4 stars
Author: Katherine Kirkpatrick
Illustrator: Ronald Himler
History texts tell of big battles. They ignore the many tales about regular people trying to cope and help win the war.
During the Revolutionary War, the redcoats arrive in Thomas' village arresting his father and chasing him and his mother out of their house. They take up residence in a nearby cottage. Each day Thomas is told to row to a far bay to look for a whaleboat. As he does so, he fishes and collects clams.
Thomas doesn't really know what is going on or why his mother seems to always be hanging out washing on the clothesline. Yet this work was very important as Thomas finds out after the war.
The illustrations show the clothing, the area and the people well. This matters as these are now things people have no real knowledge of or understanding of what life was like before all of the conveniences and machines we take for granted now.
Clotilda
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Jack Kent
Clotilda is a fairy godmother except she has no one to be a godmother for. Two children find her. One shrugs off her magic as things that would happen anyway. The other is willing to enjoy the magic of these happenings and having a fairy godmother is one of them.
The illustrations are colorful and fun as is the story.
Where the Buffaloes Begin
5 stars favorite
Author: Olaf Baker
Illustrator: Stephen Gammell
Originally written in 1915, this story begins with an ancient Indian legend of a lake far to the south where, at the right time, the buffaloes rise up out of the waters and race off across the plains. The boy Lone Wolf dreams of seeing the buffaloes rise up out of the water and goes in search of the lake. This is the story of his search and the exciting results.
The illustrations are pencil with a softness to give the story a feeling of being an old legend.
