Free Buffalo Before Breakfast by Mary Pope Osborne

Teachers and librarians love
Magic Tree House® books, too!
    Thank you for opening faraway places and times to my class through your books. They have given me the chance to bring in additional books, materials, and videos to share with the class.
—J. Cameron
    It excites me to see how involved [my fourth-grade reading class] is in your books.… I would do anything to get my students more involved, and this has done it.
—C. Rutz
    I discovered your books last year.… WOW! Our students have gone crazy over them. I can’t order enough copies! … Thanks for contributing so much to children’s literature!
—C. Kendziora
    I first came across your Magic Tree House series when my son brought one home.… I have since introduced this great series to my class. They have absolutely fallen in love with these books! … My students are now asking me for more independent reading time to read them. Your stories have inspired even my most struggling readers.
—M. Payne
    I love how I can go beyond the [Magic Tree House] books and use them as springboards for other learning.
—R. Gale
    We have enjoyed your books all year long. We check your Web site to find new information. We pull our map down to find the areas where the adventures take place. My class always chimes in at key parts of the story. It feels good to hear my students ask for a book and cheer when a new book comes out.
—J. Korinek
    Our students have “Magic Tree House fever.” I can’t keep your books on the library shelf.
—J. Rafferty
    Your books truly invite children into the pleasure of reading. Thanks for such terrific work.
—S. Smith
    The children in the fourth grade even hide the [Magic Tree House] books in the library so that they will be able to find them when they are ready to check them out.
—K. Mortensen
    My Magic Tree House books are never on the bookshelf because they are always being read by my students. Thank you for creating such a wonderful series.
—K. Mahoney



Dear Readers,
    For several years I’ve wanted Jack and Annie to visit Native American people in the 1800s. I wasn’t sure which tribe they should visit, for there are many different Native American tribes, and each is unique with its own customs, language, and way of life.
    Finally, I settled on the Lakota, a tribe of the Great Plains. My research was a bit difficult, though, because I discovered that there are several groups of Lakota Indians, each different from the other. Also, many Lakota customs and beliefs have never been written down, so no one can say for sure what their way of life was actually like over a century ago.
    But in Buffalo Before Breakfast , I have tried to share with you the most basic information I’ve learned about the traditional ways of the Lakota people. Jack, Annie, and I feel privileged to have spent a short “visit” with these interesting people. And we hope that you will, too.
    All my best,
    Â 

Text copyright © 1999 by Mary Pope Osborne.
Illustrations copyright © 1999 by Sal Murdocca.
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultane- ously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
    www.randomhouse.com/kids
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Osborne, Mary Pope.
Buffalo before breakfast / by Mary Pope Osborne ; illustrated by Sal Murdocca.
p. cm. — (Magic tree house ; #18) “A stepping stone book.”
SUMMARY: The magic tree house takes Jack and his sister Annie into the Great Plains, where they learn about the life of the Lakota Indians.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89475-6
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Tree houses—Fiction. 4. Dakota Indians—Fiction. 5. Indians of North America—Great Plains—Fiction.]
I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Osborne, Mary