This picture book is absolutely darling! It tells the story of Bryson, a very small but smart bison, who leads his herd through the scariest storm anyone remembers. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is told in small poetic stanzas. It concludes with a lesson about running through storms, or facing your fears. I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone. It’s especially good for my students as our school mascot is the bison.

A slightly amusing children's book on facing your fears. Due to Bryson the Brave Bison being from a Christian publisher for children yet lacking any faith content to encourage young readers to seek their Father in their fearful times I'm only giving 2 and 1/2 stars rounded to 3.

This is a new favourite for my family!! A wonderful rhythming story encouraging children to face their fears head on and do something about the situation! We loved it! The super fun illustrations just added to the story!

All my boys (4-14) and I highly recommend this book!!

A fun rhyming children's book with brightly colored illustrations & a great moral.

I appreciate books such as this that model positive character traits & encourage kids to strive to be more honest, brave, kind, etc.

You would not expect a large bison to be afraid, but that's exactly what Bryson is....until he is forced to face his fears & realizes that when he uses his mind & thinks through it, it's not really so scary!

(I was able to preview this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.)

I received an ARC of from NetGalley and Zonderkidz Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Written by by Nate Davenport and Luke Freshwater and illustrated by Richard Cowdrey, “Bryson the Brave Buffalo” is a rhyming children’s book. The authors try to teach children how to be fearless by facing problems head-on instead of trying to run away from them, but I think it’s a bit ironic that the authors chose to use buffalo.

Whenever I see a picture book about large mammals, and especially buffalo illustrated in a whimsical way, I’m a little wary. I used to live in South Dakota and I specifically remember when a *grown woman* actually tried to kiss a buffalo—I’m not lying—and nearly died as a result (the buffalo charged and head butted her sending her into the hospital for a very lengthy time). She’s lucky the entire herd didn’t stampede.

People in the English-speaking world don’t generally get the chance to be near large mammals like elephants, but buffalo are a different story. While I love the idea of teaching children about being fearless with problems, I think that it might have been more appropriate to illustrate buffalo with a lesson to teach kids about safety around these animals. I’m not trying to be a sour puss, but not a year passes when a tourist will unnecessarily approach a 2-ton bison in order to kiss it, hug it, or “run with it” (yes, people actually do this!). This is a big problem out west, and particularly at Yellowstone National Park.

If they authors had changed the story to focus on safety around these animals instead, numerous national parks in the west would have been clamoring to put this book on their shelves. It seems like this book will do the opposite, with the illustrator making it seem like the buffalos are harmless and all about fun and play. In reality, buffalo will stampede at even the slightest provocation and a good healthy respect is needed (and a safe distance) if one is to survive intact.

Perfect! Great story, colorful illustrations and a good message about courage—this book has it all. Bryson will make a fun read along.

This is the story of Bryson the Bison who isn't the best or biggest bison in his herd but he's very smart and he uses his smarts to face his fears and show the whole herd to face their fear of storms. The book is a cute way to teach kids about facing fears and learning to not be afraid of troubles they might face in life. The illustrations are humorous with the bison all having different hairdos.

Excellent! The illustrations are phenomenal (and hilarious) and the rhymes make it really memorable. A little bison that wasn’t as tall or strong or talented as the others in his herd, but he becomes a hero when his quick-thinking and bravery saves everyone in the face of a terrible prairie thunderstorm. It is a story of inspiration and courage that the best way to withstand a storm is not to run from it, but to meet it head-on with bravery and perseverance. This will be a favorite in my homeschool library! Absolutely recommend to anyone with kiddos. (It’s also a great reminder for us adults, too)

Thank you, NetGalley!

My preschool students will love this book! It has fun rhymes that tell the story of a Bison who may not be good at things the other bison are good at like painting and running fast, but he is a great problem solver. When a storm comes along, he comes up with a plan to help his scared friends and family face the storm with courage.

The silly art in this story will be sure to have kids laughing out loud and the message of courage and facing your fears is clear throughout the story. I think that it does need an extra conversation from the adult reading it about some fears are healthy and we should not face some dangerous things like: strangers, knives, etc.

I will be buying a copy of this for my classroom!