Picture Book Pick of the Week: Buffalo Fluffalo

Every day, I read a new picture book and write down a few things about each book. Today, I looked over the last 5 books that I’ve read and chose my favorite book:

Buffalo Fluffalo by Bess Kalb with illustrations by Erin Kraan.

The thing that I love about this book has to start with the illustrations.

Inside the cover it says: “The artist created hand-carved woodcuts of the characters, printed them, and scanned the prints into a computer. They were colored using scanned textures and paint in Photoshop. The characters were combined with acrylic gouache and woodcut-printed backgrounds to compose the scenes throughout the book.”

As an artist, I sit back and admire the amount of work that was gone into to create each illustration for this picture book.

I mean, hand-carved woodcuts. For every character. On every page.

It’s not only a lot of work, it also works.

Just look at the curls on this buffalo. Amazing.

(Ok, I’m just a little bit partial to some luscious curls in an illustration.)

The next thing I love about this book is the rhyme. Not every rhyming picture book works. And the author takes a leaf out of Dr. Seuss’s books to make this happen. My first impression, was, “This is like Dr. Seuss….but… more elegant.”

And it is. Even though the author uses some made up words to rhyme, it works and it is fun.

Fun words and fun illustrations always make a great picture book.

The last thing I love about this book is the story. The story of this proud, mean buffalo teaches kids how to be social. Usually it’s the protagonist who teaches kids through their story. And the protagonist does have something to teach kids. I also found just as much inspiration from the cast of supporting animals. These animals are socially and emotionally strong characters. And when this angry, arrogant buffalo stomps into their life, they invite him to play and he chases them away. Here I have to harken back to the illustrator. The picture of this prairie dog while the buffalo is posturing, just speaks volumes of how he feels. It’s like he is saying, “Oh my. Well, I tried. I hope he figures this thing out.”

When life dumps on the Buffalo, and he gets some tough love from the ram, the animals don’t hold grudges. They hold mercy for this scared buffalo who is faking it so he can make it. They hold a place for their neighbor until he is ready to be a part of their lives.

And that makes all the difference.

Love this book. I can’t get Enuffalo.

Just one more awesome illustration from the book: