Info on Goodbye Buffalo Bay by Larry Loyie

Goodbye Buffalo Bay, award-winning Cree author Larry Loyie’s true story of his life in residential school and moving on, now available from Theytus Books

Cree author Larry Loyie went back to school at 55 years of age to fulfill his dream of becoming a writer. At age 75, Loyie’s fifth book, Goodbye Buffalo Bay, is now available from Theytus Books. The award-winning Cree author has no plans to quit writing. “I’ve just started,” says Loyie, “There is much more to share about the strength of our First Nations cultures.”

Goodbye Buffalo Bay is the sequel to his award-winning children’s books, When the Spirits Dance (Theytus) and As Long as the Rivers Flow (Groundwood).

After reading about Larry Loyie’s traditional Cree childhood in these best-selling books, readers asked, "What happened to Lawrence?" The new chapter book, Goodbye Buffalo Bay, from Theytus Books, is the answer. Goodbye Buffalo Bay is the true story of Lawrence (Larry Loyie) in his last year in residential school and of moving on, searching for his place within his family, culture, community and as an individual.

In his last year in residential school, Lawrence (Larry Loyie) learns the power of friendship and courage. Returning home, he finds himself a stranger to his family and First Nations culture until he hears his grandfather’s gentle guiding voice. Before he turns 16, Lawrence fights a terrifying forest fire, flies for the first time, makes his first non-Native friends, works on the dangerous green chain in a sawmill in McBride, BC, and fulfills his dream of living in the mountains.

Goodbye Buffalo Bay is dramatic, fast-paced, funny, perceptive and reader friendly. The book explores themes of family and culture, the effects of residential school, the power of friendship, anger versus assertiveness, self-discovery, personal freedom, and making dreams come true.

"Goodbye Buffalo Bay will break your heart, lift you up and leave you longing to follow Cree author Larry Loyie's remarkable life to the present day," observes Loriene Roy (Anishinabe), past president of the American Library Association and founder of “If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything,” a national reading club for Native American children.

For more information, including photographs from Larry Loyie’s childhood, please see Larry's website: www.firstnationswriter.com