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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
5.0
They called the killer snowstorm of January 12, 1888 "the children's blizzard," because it hit just as schools were letting out. Some children had already left the schoolhouse, others were gathered inside to shelter in place, some made it home, and some froze to death on the way home. Coming at the end of a balmy morning, too many children and teachers didn't have their usual cold weather coats and wraps with them. The result was a heartbreaking loss in a region where every person was needed.
Welcome to the Great Plains in the late 19th century. Pamphlets extolling wonderful farming opportunities and cheap land drew families from across the world to Nebraska and the Dakotas, people who were completely unprepared to handle the brutal weather, wind and loneliness. Melanie Benjamin focuses on two sister school teachers--both teens themselves--who have schools at two different parts of the territories. How they react to the blizzard will shape the rest of their lives. Also on the scene is Gavin Woodson, a New York newspaperman whose glowing descriptions of the prairies lured people from Norway, Sweden, and Germany to a flat and inhospitable land. He's now based in the frozen, sodden but growing city of Omaha, where he can see first hand what his writing has done.
This is an almost unbearably suspenseful novel, and Melanie Benjamin's descriptions of the teachers and the children's fight to survive will keep you up until the wee hours. And better, the tension of the story does not end once the morning light comes. What happens in sunlight when you can see family members frozen to death only feet from the front door? How do your support your neighbors? What happens to frostbitten farmers who lose limbs?
I loved this book, and was so, so happy to see Melanie Benjamin writing again on the level of "Alice I Have Been" and "Mrs. Tom Thumb." Here we are, bummed about being stuck in our houses, and"The Children's Blizzard" reminds us about how others faced brutal hardship and fought their way through. Super reading and a perfect book for our times.
MANY thanks to Netgalley, Edelweiss, and the publisher for granting access to this title in exchange for an honest review.
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
Welcome to the Great Plains in the late 19th century. Pamphlets extolling wonderful farming opportunities and cheap land drew families from across the world to Nebraska and the Dakotas, people who were completely unprepared to handle the brutal weather, wind and loneliness. Melanie Benjamin focuses on two sister school teachers--both teens themselves--who have schools at two different parts of the territories. How they react to the blizzard will shape the rest of their lives. Also on the scene is Gavin Woodson, a New York newspaperman whose glowing descriptions of the prairies lured people from Norway, Sweden, and Germany to a flat and inhospitable land. He's now based in the frozen, sodden but growing city of Omaha, where he can see first hand what his writing has done.
This is an almost unbearably suspenseful novel, and Melanie Benjamin's descriptions of the teachers and the children's fight to survive will keep you up until the wee hours. And better, the tension of the story does not end once the morning light comes. What happens in sunlight when you can see family members frozen to death only feet from the front door? How do your support your neighbors? What happens to frostbitten farmers who lose limbs?
I loved this book, and was so, so happy to see Melanie Benjamin writing again on the level of "Alice I Have Been" and "Mrs. Tom Thumb." Here we are, bummed about being stuck in our houses, and"The Children's Blizzard" reminds us about how others faced brutal hardship and fought their way through. Super reading and a perfect book for our times.
MANY thanks to Netgalley, Edelweiss, and the publisher for granting access to this title in exchange for an honest review.
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader