Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / story by Ursula K. LeGuin ; illustrated by Susan Seddon Boulet.

Ursula K. Le Guin has an uncanny understanding of the magical. In this story, she is particularly adept at exploring the magic of animals as she shows us their wisdom, follies, spirits, and personalities. The animals seem like people to us--albeit strange and extraordinary people--just as they do to the little girl who finds herself living among them after Coyote rescues her in the wilderness. We learn, with the girl, that they are the "Old People," those who used to live freely on the earth and who now must maintain their lifeways carefully alongside the careless and dangerous world of the "New People"--humans. Le Guin uses the animals--from the irreverent trickster Coyote to the boastful doctor Bluejay to the wise matriarch Grandmother Spider--to take us in and help us remember, deep within our own ancient histories, their sacredness and magic, as well as that of the earth, thereby heightening our own compassion and sense of what is holy.

English.