Thunder on the Plains: The Story of the American Buffalo [Hardcover]

Ken Robbins (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

Ken Robbins tells in words and historical photographs the amazing yet tragic story of a magnificent and truly American creature: the buffalo. It is the story of numbers so vast, it might take days for one herd of buffalo to pass a particular point on the prairie. It is the story of a harmonious, balanced relationship with Native Americans who revered and even worshiped the huge animals that gave them almost everything they needed to survive. And it is the sad story of how, in as little as twenty-five years, reckless and wasteful slaughter at the hands of newly-arrived settlers drove the buffalo to the very brink of extinction. But luckily the story has a somewhat happy ending. The destruction was halted and the number of buffalo has risen again, although the days when a stampeding herd made a sound like thunder on the plains are probably gone forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Robbins (Trucks) briefly traces the history of the American buffalo from 1875, when "there were perhaps fifty million of them," to the present, in which laws protect the surviving 200,000. "This is the story of a great shaggy creature, a very American beast, one found here and nowhere else," he begins. From the days when its distant ancestors crossed a long-vanished land bridge from Asia to Alaska, through its heyday on the Western plains and on to near-extinction by the early 1900s with the arrival of the white man, Robbins concisely and clearly charts the animal's evolution. He contrasts the attitudes of the newly arrived Europeans (who shot buffalo for their tongues and hides alone, or shot them from aboard trains "for fun") with Native Americans, who used every part of the buffalo for food, clothing, shelter and vital implements. Robbins supplements the text with a herd of dramatic images including a colorized archival photo of a man standing atop a veritable mountain of buffalo skulls, a painting of a brave hunting a buffalo with bow and arrow as well as his own photographs of a buffalo-head nickel and present-day buffalo grazing in Oklahoma. Ages 7-10. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-A moving tale of tragedy and recovery. In 1875, there were about 50 million bison thundering on the American plains. By 1910, only 500 remained. With so few left, they finally came under the protection of the U.S. government. In this chapterless text, set amid full-page illustrations and photographs, Robbins provides some background information and history on the animal before and after the arrival of Europeans. He tracks the dramatic decrease in population and recounts efforts made to restore these animals to our landscape. The author estimates that there are 200,000 bison living today and notes that they are no longer on the list of endangered animals. Quality period reproductions or photographs (some hand-tinted) illustrate most pages. One poignant shot depicts a mountain of bison skulls; another has a man sitting on a mound of hides. This book covers some of the same ground as Russell Freedman's Buffalo Hunt (Holiday, 1988), but is geared to a slightly younger audience.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689830254
• ISBN-13: 978-0689830259
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kind of unfair, May 25, 2010

By 

P. Thompson (Stillwater, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thunder on the Plains: The Story of the American Buffalo (Paperback)

to give the book bad marks because you didn't read far enough to find out it is a children's book. Robbins creates beautiful works of art with his books and I was pleased to find he had done a book on buffalo. A great addition to his body of work.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Joke, January 6, 2009

By 

Edward Przystas "hoodpro" (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thunder on the Plains: The Story of the American Buffalo (Hardcover)

This "book" has a total of 13 pages with information. Written for people with poor eyesight the text is very large and sparse. Book is mostly large photographs. Not at all what I expected. I guess you can call anything a book if it has a hardcover.I missed the ages 7 to 12 part. This is definitely misrepresented. I read the first review. That person must work for the bookstore. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK AND BE CAREFUL OF THIS SELLER.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This is a Childrens Book, July 2, 2009

By 

Arts and Crafts - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thunder on the Plains: The Story of the American Buffalo (Paperback)

This is a book for children. I had no idea of that. It was not clearly marked as such. I would not have bought it had I known.