One Day in the Prairie

Henry Rush is spending the day at the Prairie Wildlife Refuge, determined to photograph a prairie dog doing a back flip. But while he whatches and waites at the edge of prairie dog town, he fails to notice the electricity humming through the air. Or the buffalo aniously pawing the ground. Or the purple-blue cloud building over the prairie grass. A tornado is forming to the west . And when the dark funnel touches down, it will wipe out everything in it's path...

The animals on a prairie wildlife refuge sense an approaching tornado and seek protection before it touches down and destroys everything in its path.

Henry Rush is spending the day at the Prairie Wildlife Refuge, determined to photograph a prairie dog doing a back flip. But while he whatches and waites at the edge of prairie dog town, he fails to notice the electricity humming through the air. Or the buffalo aniously pawing the ground. Or the purple-blue cloud building over the prairie grass. A tornado is forming to the west . And when the dark funnel touches down, it will wipe out everything in it's path...

Publishers Weekly

At dawn, the electricity in the air warns buffalo of an impending storm. An eagle flies overhead; a prairie dog back flips to warn other prairie dogs about the eagle. Henry, camera in hand, wants to photograph the wildlife. Before the day is out, he will have survived a tornado that has killed animals and plants. That is life on the prairie, as related by Newbery Medalist George. Her lucid explanations of the ways the animals read signals and prepare for a storm are a primer in natural science; she chooses information with care, and maintains a simple storyline. Marstall's pictures add drama to a book that's perhaps not as immediately interesting as George's One Day in the Alpine Tundra and One Day in the Desert, perhaps because prairies are more familiar landscapes. Yet readers will newly understand the fragility and interrelationship of life forms. (9-12)

Jean Craighead George is the author of over eighty books for children and young adults. Her novel Julie of the Wolves won the Newbery Medal in 1973, and her novel My Side of the Mountain was a Newbery Honor Book in 1960. She has continued to write acclaimed picture books and novels that celebrate the natural world. She lives in Chappaqua, New York, and has had over 173 pets in the time she has lived there, among them geese and ducks.