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A retelling of the Cheyenne and Sioux myth about the Great Race, a contest called by the Creator to settle the question of whether man or buffalo should have supremacy and thus become the guardians of Creation.
About the author
Paul Goble has received wide acclaim for his magnificent books, including
Buffalo Woman, Dream Wolf, Her Seven Brothers, and the winner of the 1979 Caldecott Medal,
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. Commenting on his work in
Beyond the Ridge, Horn Book Magazine said, "striking elements synthesize the graphics with the narrative and spiritual aspects of the text." The
New York Times Book Review noted that his technique is "a marriage of authentic design and contemporary artistry, and it succeeds beautifully." Paul Goble's most recent book for Bradbury Press,
I Sing for the Animals, was called "a lovely, small book that movingly conveys profound belief in the goodness of creation" by
Kirkus Reviews, and
School Library Journal said it "fits as easily in the hand as Goble's meditations about the natural world do in the heart."
Summary
Long ago, when the world was still quite new, buffaloes used to eat people. It is true? The hair on their chins is hair of the people they use to eat...It is Terrible to think about those times...
But the Creator saw the people's distress and decreed that a contest be held between all the two-legged and four-legged creatures. Who would win, thundering Buffalo or fleet-footed Man? None of the other animals was fast enough, and before the end, Beaver and Muskrat slipped off into a cool stream, Jack-rabbit hopped off across the plain, and Mole and Gopher tunneled underground (and may still think the race is on).
The winner was decided long ago, in Sioux and Cheyenne legend. Buffalo -- who lost -- agreed to give up eating men for dinner, and thanks to the cunning of a single magpie, Man became the guardian of the natural world.
