FICTION

Buffalo Wild!

by Deidre Havrelock (text) & illus. by Azby Whitecalf
Annick. Sept. 2021. 32p. Tr $19.95. ISBN 9781773215334.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 3–The story of Declan, a young boy, his kokum—grandmother—and buffalo. Kokum explains how the buffalo roamed freely with their ancestors, but now live in the sky. When Declan gets ready for bed he imagines the buffalo returning and the “wild, wonderful beasts” getting into mischief. The book shares similarities with Maurice Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are in the way it combines a curious imagination and a wild rumpus of mischievous beasts. Soothing illustrations by Whitecalf (a member of the Plains Cree) draw readers into Declan’s dreamlike world and their own evening with the buffalo. Haverlock, an enrolled member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, ends by explaining the Buffalo Treaty, a 2014 document that promotes cooperation, renewal, and restoration with Indigenous peoples.
VERDICT This title offers a great learning opportunity, providing a better understanding of the importance of animals from an Indigenous point of view.
Reviewed by Danielle Burbank, Farmington, NM , Oct 01, 2021

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