Description
Written by Peter Roop
Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
Little Blaze wants to be the buffalo runner who leads the buffalo over the piksun, or buffalo jump cliff. Each jump means food for his people and new buffalo skins for robes and lodges. A jump is also a chance for the awha waki, the buffalo runner, to earn a new name.
But his father has chosen his brother, Curly Bear, instead and Little Blaze is angry. When Curly Bear stumbles while leading the herd, will Little Blaze be able to forget his hurt and anger and save his brother?
Peter Roop received his Master’s in Children’s Literature in 1980 from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College in Boston, and has since published more than 20 children’s books. Seven of these, including Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie are co-authored by his wife Connie and are Reading Rainbow books. Peter has written many articles and stories about Native Americans for Cobblestone Magazine, where The Buffalo Jump was published in an earlier form. His stories have also appeared in Cricket, Jack and Jill, Highlights, and Short Story International. His first three children’s books were about the Blackfeet Indians and were all published by the Council for Indian Education.
The 1986 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, Peter currently teaches grades one and two. Peter and Connie live in Appleton, Wisconsin, with their two children, Sterling, fourteen, and Heidi, eleven.
Bill Farnsworth, a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and a member of the Society of Illustrators and The Air Force Art Program provides illustrations for such clients as Tennis Magazine and Reader’s Digest, Harcourt Brace & Co., Bantam Doubleday Dell, and Simon & Schuster.
As research for the illustrations in The Buffalo Jump, Bill traveled to Browning, Montana, the heart of the Blackfeet Reservation, and photographed Blackfeet models, buffalo, and the original buffalo jump sites. He also visited the Plains Indian Museum in Browning, the Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Center in Alberta, Canada, and the Museum of Natural History.
Bill lives in Venice, Florida with his wife Deborah, and daughters Allison and Caitlin.
Rising Moon Books, 1996
ISBN: 978-0-87358-731-0