REVIEW: The Children's Blizzard

 The Children's Blizzard
Author: Melanie Benjamin

January 1888. The brutal cold winter had eased a bit. In the Dakota Territory, school children returned to class on a mild-for-January day. Some even ventured out without their heavy coats. It was nice to have a break from the cold snap they had been enduring. Nobody realized that later that day....just about the time for school children to be released to return home....a fast-moving, unexpected blizzard would hit. Blinding snow, dangerous cold, terrible wind, no visibility. 

The Children's Blizzard of 1888 is the stuff of legends. School teachers, barely out of childhood themselves, were faced with life and death choices. 

Melanie Benjamin's tale about the struggle to survive on that fateful day is based on the stories of survivors. 

I grew up in the midwest, and this story was legend. I don't know if I ever read any books about it growing up, but I was definitely told the story and warned what to do and not do in the case of blinding snow, or being caught away from home in a winter storm. The trunk of my car always had a survival kit in it -- blankets, hand warmers, sand, a shovel, etc. The Just-in-Case box is what we called it. Even in modern times, getting stuck in the snow between towns during a bitterly cold winter storm on the prairie can be extremely dangerous, even deadly. I can't even imagine how dangerous winter could be in the Dakotas in the 1880s. The tales of farmers tying ropes that led from the house to the barn so they could follow it as a guide to check on their animals and not get lost in the blinding snow and other prairie winter horror stories were told frequently by my grandfather and my parents. I remember a few storms that were severe for a day or two....and we had the luxury of sitting inside a house in town. Even if the power went off, we were relatively warm and dry. I always imagined braving the cold brutal winter out on a homestead before paved roads, before central heat, before modern comforts. I can only imagine what these families went through trying to survive this massive storm....hoping they had enough firewood, making life-and-death decisions, those who survived, and those who did not. 

Great book! It brought back a lot of memories for me, and made me nostalgic for my Opa's stories and Laura Ingalls Wilder books. 

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Random House. All opinions expressed are entirely my own**