Dance in a Buffalo Skull (Prairie Tales, 2)

This Native American story, by Zitkala-Sa, is rich with imagery and rich with compelling prose. It tells the story of a group of mice playing happily while the dangers of the American prairie unfold around them without their awareness.The images are so vivid and story so wonderfully crafted that younger readers may be frightful of the topic. However older children (ages 8-12) will love the dramatic unfolding and will be gripped by its theme.The word list at the back of the book helps young readers tackle the story and learn more about the survival and lives of Native Americans. Being a difficult subject matter to cover, Dance in a Buffalo Skull expertly delivers. It is an important book that explores the Native American culture.

My kid and I love this story and the illustrations are so lovely! It is a favourite in our household!

This piece of traditional fantasy features an adorable cast of mice dancing a traditional Native American dance while a predator seeks to devour them all. The artwork is particularly beautiful with rich, bright colors.I enjoyed this story as it reminded me of the Pow Wows that take place all over Oklahoma. It would be a nice addition to a Native American unit or a Multicultural Traditional Fantasy unit. It is so interesting to see the stories that have been passed down through the generations of various cultures and think of what lessons were intended through the telling.This book would be a great read before watching a Pow Wow. Students might be interested in Native American Jingle Dancers and trying to perform Jingle Dances themselves.

Lucky for us, Zitkala-Sa put pen to paper and preserved this Yanktonai Sioux story for generations to come!

Some tiny mice are playing out in the field, late at night. They have a fire going and are dancing inside a buffalo skull. They are having too much fun to realize the danger they are in. Outside prowls a wildcat. Will the wildcat be successful in capturing the mice? Or, will they be able to escape? What lesson will this book teach your children? You've got to read this terrific book to find out the answer.Author Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird), a Yankton Lakota Sioux woman, took this oral tribal history story and translated it into English in 1901. Brought vividly to life by Illustrator S. D. Nelson, a Lakota artist, I found this book to be totally awesome.Zitkala-Ša was a very talented native author who brings this oral tale alive in a unique way. This story and others were listened to around the campfires of her youth as told by the tribe's storytellers. She sticks closely to the oral history despite the translation into the English language. This was one of many oral historical tales that she translated from Lakota to English without the help of an editor, interpreter, or ethnographer. Raised traditionally for the first 8 years of her life, Zitkala-Ša then attended boarding school and later graduated from high school and college. I find it fascinating that this story was written and published by Zitkala-Ša, a prolific native American woman author and native civil rights activist, over 107 years ago; and that this oral tribal history story can still be relevant to children everywhere today. Amazing!The very gifted S. D. Nelson makes this tale literally jump off the pages and give your child a real feel for the moral message of this story. The artwork is very colorful, appealing, detailed, and kid-friendly in a big way.This is a must-have book for your child if you want them to know the wise and valuable stories that our First American children grew up with. This is a simple but fun tale that your child will want to read over and over.This book is put out by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press and is the second book in the Society's Prairie Tale series. Dance In A Buffalo Skull just won the Mom's Choice Awards' Most Outstanding Children's Book of 2008. This is an honor well deserved. Bravo to the South Dakota State Historical Society Press for bringing back the fascinating writings of Zitkala-Ša, so that new generations of the world's children can learn from her and her tribe.Reviewed by: Gayle Jacobson-Huset, Managing Editor

The dancing mice on the cover of this book are what tempted me to pick it up and explore further -- they reminded me of something I couldn't quite place. Then I remembered William Holbrook Beard's famous dancing bear painting, "Wall Street Jubilee." S.D. Nelson's creatures are even more charming, and the beast with the glowing eyes took my breath away. The text is poetic and informative -- this is a book that belongs in the classic children's book collection. It's perfect. Both adults and children will love it.

The first thing I noticed when I got the book was how beautiful the cover is. It just makes you want to open it and discover the story within. The introduction to the book gives parents a great understanding of the history behind the story. If you are the type of parent who wants to expose your child to different cultures, this book is an easy and fun way to introduce them to the Sioux Indian Oral Tradition.The imagery in the story as well as the beautiful artwork make this story a delight to both the eyes and the imagination. The vocabulary of the story is a bit more challenging than is found in your typical children's book, but there is a glossary to help with those words, for the older children enjoying the story.I don't personally have children, although I've always loved reading aloud to them. I lent my copy of this book to a good friend so she could 'test' it on a real child. Her son, 4yrs old, loved the story and asked for it to be read multiple times. She said he normally doesn't do that. So not only is this book a delight for an adult to read, it is a delight for a child to listen to.

Dance in a Buffalo Skull has been voted as the Most Outstanding Children's Book of 2008 by the Mom's Choice Awards.