Jos 's Buffalo Hunt: A Story from History — Marc Simmons

Based on actual events, José's Buffalo Hunt is the true story of an eleven-year-old boy and his first participation in the annual buffalo hunt on the Llano Estacado in 1866.

José Arrellanes lived with his parents and his older brother Pablo in the hamlet of San Miguel, on the Pecos River in northern New Mexico. Like their neighbors, the family farmed, raising corn, beans, chile, and onions. Each fall they traveled to the Texas Panhandle to bring down the buffalo, or cíbolas, and carry the meat back to their village so everyone would have plenty to eat during the long, cold winter.

This beautifully illustrated book brings to life a world where people travel by ox cart and where wolves trot beside them across the empty plains. The ciboleros dress in buckskins and are on friendly terms with the Comanches. A classic tale of a boy's initiation to manhood, this story has been an oral tradition in the Arrellanes family for almost a century and a half.

Ages 6-12 years; reading level grade 4