The children's blizzard : a novel / Melanie Benjamin.
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 sixteen 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.-- Inside jacket.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780399182280
- ISBN: 0399182284
- Physical Description: 351 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Delacorte Press, [2021]
- Copyright: ©2021
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Genre: | Domestic fiction. Historical fiction. |
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- 57 of 61 copies available at Missouri Evergreen.
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Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
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North Kansas City Public Library | FICTION BENJAMIN 2021 (Text) | 0001002432902 | Fiction | Available | - |
Barry Lawrence - Cassville Library | FIC BEN (Text) | 37884103167858 | Fiction | Available | - |
Barry Lawrence - Monett Library | FIC BEN (Text) | 37884103167866 | Fiction | Checked out | 04/19/2024 |
Barry Lawrence - Mt. Vernon Library | FIC BEN (Text) | 37884103167973 | Fiction | Available | - |
Brookfield Public Library | FIC BEN (Text) | 32512909402196 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Camden County Library District - Osage Beach | FIC BENJAMIN (Text) | 31320003781825 | Adult Fiction | Checked out | 05/04/2024 |
Camden County Library District - Sunrise Beach | FIC BENJAMIN (Text) | 31320003781833 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Cape Girardeau Public Library | BEN (Text) | 33042004734474 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Caruthersville Public Library | F BEN (Text) | 38417100527250 | Fiction | Available | - |
Cass County Library-Harrisonville | F BEN 2021 (Text) | 0002205542042 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |