HAVE YOU SEEN MY BUFFALO? - A Rhyming Story for Children

Have You Seen My Buffalo?

Written and Illustrated

By

Dianna Lynne Wood

© For Squirrel, Designs – (Wood) Kane 2004

Note to the Parent or Educator:  This story book is much more than just a delightful rhyming story   It is an interactive educational book that is designed to increase your child’s vocabulary, improve communication, gain a better understanding of rhyming words and sounds, and promote and develop your child’s natural creative talents.  It is recommended that you first read the story to your child.  Pause at any words that may not be familiar to them and provide a definition only after asking them if they know what a word might mean.  After reading the story through once, go back to the beginning of the story and review the sets of rhyming words out loud with your child.  

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“Have you seen my Buffalo?  I have searched high and low...looked to and fro.  Where he is, I do not know.

I’ll go ask Joe.  He might know.”

Joe was a crow from Idaho.

I found Joe eating a pistachio under some mistletoe while playing with a domino and his yo-yo near his studio in Tokyo.

“Hey Joe!   I cannot find my Buffalo.  I have searched high and low...looked to and fro.  Where he is, I do not know.”

“I’ll help you find your buffalo.  Let’s go to the rodeo in Mexico.  We’ll ask the head honcho who wears a poncho and has a big black mustachio.”

So…off we went to Mexico!

“Mr. Honcho!  Mr. Honcho!  Have you seen my Buffalo?  I have searched high and low...looked to and fro.  Where he is, I do not know.  Joe the crow from Idaho thought you might know the whereabouts of my Buffalo.”

“Perhaps you should go to Ontario and ask Romeo.  He might know…for I haven’t seen your Buffalo.”

He went below, said “tally-ho”, got in his boat and began to row.  He was on his way to Cairo to buy a yellow sombrero.

So…off we went to Ontario!

“Oh, Romeo!  Oh, Romeo!  Have you seen my Buffalo?  I have searched high and low...looked to and fro.  Where he is, I do not know.  The head honcho at the rodeo in Mexico thought you might know the whereabouts of my Buffalo.”

“I may have seen him long-ago on the patio down by the depot owned by so-and-so.”

“Well, let’s go!”

So, we went to the patio down by the depot owned by so-and-so to (hopefully) find my Buffalo.

“See!  There you go,” said Romeo.  “There is your Buffalo.”

“No!  No!  That’s no Buffalo!  That’s a doe, incognito.”

   “Oh, I didn’t know.  Would you join me for gazpacho and a video before you go?

So, we watched a show on video and ate gazpacho with Romeo and the doe on the patio by the depot.  The gazpacho was magnifico but it gave me vertigo and I stubbed my toe.  Boy, did it grow!  It even turned black and indigo!

“Please bring me a bow and some Velcro and I’ll wrap my toe.

Thank you for the gazpacho, but we really must go.  I want to find my Buffalo.”

“Try the Navajo down at the Alamo.  I hear he may know about a Buffalo.”

So…off we went to the Alamo!

“Can you help us find my Buffalo?  I have searched high and low...looked to and fro.  Where he is, I do not know.  Romeo thought you might know the whereabouts of my Buffalo.”

“No, I haven’t seen your Buffalo.  But, I hear tell there’s a buffalo in a gazebo in Kokomo.  Perhaps it is there that you should go.”

  

So…off we went to Kokomo!

“My Buffalo! My Buffalo!

I finally found my Buffalo!”

He was in a gazebo wearing a cameo and playing the banjo.

“We have searched high and low …looked to and fro.  Where you had gone, I did not know.”

   “Well, I caught a rainbow from Idaho to Kokomo where I found a bungalow in the snow that had a radio, served cookie dough and escargot, gave me this cameo, and let me play my banjo.  Would you like to go to the bungalow?  You’ll have to tip-toe really slow through the snow.”

So, we all went to the bungalow and ate cookie dough and escargot while we listened to the radio.

 “Hey, look!  There’s the rainbow.  Let’s take it back to Idaho.”

I’m so glad I found my Buffalo!

The End