This is a book about a women and her husband who save a nearly extinct animal, the buffalo. This book also gives the reader a glimpse into pioneer life.

Miss Molly loves the sound of the buffalo's around her home, when hunters wipe out the buffalo around her she is sad for them. Later someone brings her two runt buffalo's to take care of and she nurses the two buffalo into a heard once again.

This is a good example of a folktale/ realistic fiction because it talks about a story about a farmer lady and buffalo which is based on a real story. This book shows the lady's love to buffalo and reveals the cruel and selfish behaviors done by buffalo hunters. It arouses people's sympathy and awareness to endangered animals. The language is very beautiful; however, it may be very hard for primary school students to understand because there are many difficult vocabularies. This book can be used in science, geography, history and biology classes. Teachers can use this book to arouse students' environmental awareness. ( )

Inspired by the real-life story of Texas pioneer and rancher Mary Ann Goonight, Tracey E. Fern tells the fictional story of Molly, a rancher's wife who has a soft spot for orphaned animals. A buffalo lover from the first, Molly is dismayed when hunters almost wipe out the species, and agrees to take in two young buffalo calves when a cowboy brings them to her. This is the start of her own herd, which she slowly assembles from young survivors of the buffalo massacres. Eventually, after the establishment of the national parks, Molly sends some of her buffalo to help supply the herd being established in Yellowstone National Park.

An engaging enough tale, told in alliterative prose and accompanied by lovely artwork from Caldecott Honoree Lauren Castillo, Buffalo Music would have been all the better, in my opinion, if it had been a straight picture-book biography of the real woman who inspired this fictionalized retelling. Given that the original subject was such an interesting character, why not write a non-fiction book about her? Leaving that disappointment aside, I found the narrative here engaging, and did appreciate Tracey Fern's afterword, in which she gave more information about Mary Ann Goodnight, and suggested further reading ideas. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories about efforts to save the buffalo, in the face of its imminent extinction because of over-hunting. Perhaps as a companion book to Joseph Bruchac's Buffalo Song, a picture-book about the efforts of Flathead Indians to preserve this marvelous species. ( )

Impulse grab at the library.  Glad I did so.  The book is told in first person, from the ranch wife who missed the sounds of the massive herds as she did her chores, and who then devoted all her spare energy to raising buffalo calves whose parents had been shot by the trophy hunters.  Good author's note.  The pictures are a little, um, light-hearted... but then, this is not supposed to be a depressing book, but is supposed to inspire us to do good work, to know that small efforts can reap large rewards. ( )