The Children's Blizzard

A Novel

By: Melanie Benjamin

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Aviator's Wife comes a story of courage on the prairie, inspired by the devastating storm that struck the Great Plains in 1888, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders, especially schoolchildren.

“A nail-biter ... poignant, powerful, perfect.” (Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network)

The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a punishing cold spell. It was warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota Territory to venture out again and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats - leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard blew in without warning. Schoolteachers as young as 16 were suddenly faced with life-and-death decisions: Keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn’t get lost in the storm?

Based on actual oral histories of survivors, this gripping novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers - one becomes a hero of the storm and the other finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It’s also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It was Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured Northern European immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed them to settle territories into states, and they didn’t care what lies they told these families to get them there - or whose land it originally was.

At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents’ choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today - because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.

©2021 Melanie Benjamin (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“In this atmospheric novel, as relentlessly paced as a thriller, you experience the encroaching storm from many perspectives and, in the process, understand something important about the tenacity of the human spirit.” (Christina Baker Kline, author of The Exiles)

“Melanie Benjamin reminds us that immigrant stories are at the heart of American history. She weaves a moving and uplifting tale of courage, family, and sacrifice.” (Jean Kwok, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee)

“Melanie Benjamin never fails to create compelling, unforgettable characters and place them against the backdrop of startling history.” (Lisa Wingate, author of The Book of Lost Friends)

Has good intentions

I really wanted to love this book but I kept getting confused with who was a sister, etc!!! Maybe because it didn’t hold my interest so I wasn’t paying attention???!!! Maybe that’s it !!! Narration was perfect!!!

A long slog uphill, both ways, in the snow.

This is the perfect example of a well written book that showed many different perspectives of a horrible historical event. Even so, none of the characters were particularly endearing. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. And it keeps on going. I was very interested to learn about this little known blizzard but wow I think I’d rather read 3 books about the Holocaust instead & I’d finish feeling happier than after this book.

Unnecessary Foul Language

The story was interesting, and the narrator did a great job, but the author took away from her work by using unnecessary foul language and sacrilegious terms. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to find any book that doesn’t use offensive vocabulary, and this book was another disappointment in that way. If these things don’t raise issue with you, you very well may thoroughly enjoy this book.

Excellent

An excellent dramatization of the difficult life on the Prairie during the Blizzard of 1888.

Great til near the end

I liked the historical story of this tragic event, but it seemed as though the author couldn't figure out how to end it and just had to keep going. By that point I had lost interest. Also as a working farmer, I sensed a bias against farmers; how passing on a farm to their children was a burden and how now the farmers in Nebraska are using up all the water. The basic story line was good, but I've read better.

Well crafted tale

From a sad historical event comes an engaging tale that is well worth the listen. The reader delivers a flawless performance.

Melanie Benjamin has done it again!

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the facts in this account. I especially enjoyed that the author created the main characters on people and accounts from history. I live in an area which very well could have been in this blizzard, eastern CO which is a desert climate. I hope the author is not right about the aquifers drying up, however that statement given at the end of the book would probably turned me off a little.

a bit slow

struggled to finish it because I thought it was a bit slow in many places.

Heartbreaking

It was like watching a train wreck but you could not look away. It made me realize the struggles our ancestors had not only physically but emotionally as well. Thank you.

Very sad

Now I understand the hardships of the immigrants, including 3 rd generation, in my father-in-laws case, of the difficulties in settling the Midwest. I do think the author went on and on too long with the story which was a very sad one about the children lost in the blizzard.