It has taken time, but he has done it again. Leo Yerxa, Ojibwe artist-author of the multi-award-winning Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall (1993), has produced another surefire prize contender with this tribute to the wild horses of the Great Plains. Their pounding hooves are the title’s “ancient thunder.”

Although illustration is the focus of this picture book, Ancient Thunder’s concise text (less than 70 words) effectively sets up the book’s clever, creative images. It also clearly conveys a native sensibility and affinity with the natural world.

Preschoolers will engage immediately with the herd of colourful and uniquely patterned horses racing, chasing, and soaring from the front endpapers through a world of vast skies, seas of grass, and starry nights. Older children will find the text-inspired pictures (framed in articles of clothing traditional to native peoples of the Plains) intriguing. There is also lots of scope in the illustrations for counting, seeking, and matching activities.

Yerxa prefaces Ancient Thunder with a note about his inspiration for the book, the process he used to give handmade watercolour paper a leather look, and his research. Lovely to look at, this quick, quiet read is a terrific addition to the body of distinctly Canadian picture books.