From the New York Times bestselling 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 NetworkThe morning of January 12, 1888, was … 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 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.
more
The Children’s Blizzard wasn’t really the right fit for me. I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, and that’s why I asked to review this from Ballantine, and while it is based around the blizzard of 1888, I felt that the book was definitely more a literary saga than historical fiction.
Benjamin spent an inordinate amount of time on long-winded paragraphs that were unnecessarily detailed. I lost my cool in chapter 15, where we had paragraphs piled on paragraphs of the impact on animals from great to small. While it was flowy and descriptive, it didn’t move the story forward.
I appreciate the research that went into writing this. I think it’s important that we have authors that bring these tragedies to life in their stories. But this just wasn’t the right one for me. I think if you go into this expecting a literary saga rather than historical fiction, you might really enjoy this.
In The Children’s Blizzard, Melanie Benjamin takes readers to the Nebraska and Dakota territories in 1888. The novel, based on true events, centers around two sisters, Gerda and Raina Olsen, whose Norwegian immigrant parents moved to Nebraska under the Homestead Act of 1862. This Act offered 160 acres of land in the western territories for a minimal filing fee. After living on the land for five years, homesteaders owned the land, free and clear.
The sisters, born in Nebraska, both become teachers; Gerda, 18, teaches in a town in the Dakota territory, and Raina, 16, in a town in Nebraska. Each boards with a local family during the week, returning to their home on the weekends.
January 12, 1888 dawns as a warm, beautiful day, ending a long and severe cold snap that has kept everybody sheltered in their homes for weeks. Everyone is eager to be outside and to get back to their normal routines. Children return to school, wearing only light jackets or sweaters; there is no need for anything heavier.
But come dismissal time, things outside have drastically changed. Temperatures have plummeted, and a dark and powerful storm quickly descends upon the territories. Gerda and Raina, each scarcely out of childhood herself, must decide whether to tell the children to run home as quickly as possible, or whether to keep the children at school and do their best to ride out the storm. Shortly after each makes her irrevocable decision, the storm is an all out blizzard with winds strong enough to blow out windows. Gerda and Raina made different decisions and each will live with the consequences of that decision for the rest of her life.
Ms. Benjamin again demonstrates her extraordinary descriptive and character building skills. The era, places, and complex characters are so vividly brought to life that this reader felt transported, feeling all of the emotions and physical challenges right along with the characters.
This is an amazing, hard-to-put-down read. Add it to your must read list NOW; you won’t regret it!
My thanks to NetGalley and Delacourt Press for allowing me to read a copy of this book which is scheduled to be published 1/12/2021. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
This poignant and emotional story begins one beautiful, sunny day in January of 1888 on the plains of the Dakota Territory. The story introduces us to Gerda and Raina Olsen, sisters and schoolteachers working in different parts of the territory. Both girls are faced with decisions that will alter their life and that of their students forever when a blizzard unlike anything they have ever seen hits the prairie.
Gerda and Raina each choose a different path to follow as the storm hits. One becomes disgraced over her actions and the other becomes a heroine. The story follows not only the girls, but several of their students and their paths forward. Intertwined in the story is Gavin Woodson, a disgraced writer, trying to make a new way forward for himself. Gavin’s impact on one of the sisters and her student will be felt for years to come.
The story is a rich mingling of history and drama. Touching on complex issues of the prejudice against immigrants, the difficulties of life on the plains in the 1800’s, and of the complications faced by young women on their own during this time, the book weaves an engrossing tale that readers of historical fiction will find well worth their time!
This copy was received from Delacorte Press and Netgalley. The above thoughts and opinions are wholly my own.
The author gives us a story that resonates with us living in the snow belt, this story is about the “Children’s Blizzard”, and it is called that because the storm hit at the exact time the children were sent home from school for the day.
We are given names, and and see through the eyes of the author the harsh conditions. We walk in their shoes as they frantically try to get to safety and warmth, and follow them as they make decisions for themselves and others that change their lives completely.
We meet and follow several characters, and I did love how the author followed through and we moved on with their lives, however short or long.
One thing that stood out was the newspaper articles, of course they wanted to sell papers, but as with today they made up things, and that is why today there is not an accurate count of how many lost their lives.
Your heart is really going to go out to some of these people, and others, well, somehow they get their comeuppance, and we get to read it happen!
What a tragic happening, but the author did a wonderful job of bring this book alive and characters very real! You don’t want to miss this one!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Ballantine, and was not required to give a positive review.
Raina and Gerda Olsen are teachers in January 1888. They teach at different schools but are part of the same blizzard that kills so many people. The sisters do opposite things with their students that day and one is praised as a hero and one is said to be a murderess. This book is based on victim’s stories that have been passed down. It was a fast moving deadly blizzard that people were not prepared for. The book is well told and the reader feels like they are out in this horrible blizzard with the children. I read this book in one sitting as I couldn’t put it down without knowing what happened to all the children. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
The year is 1888 and it is am unusually warm day for January.
Nobody realized the impending blizzard would come and create such tragedy.
There is survival, courage, fear, and true horror as the little school with young teachers, does their very best to keep the students safe.
It took me awhile to complete this story, but it was very good, well written and the details are incredible.
This was a well written and tense story to read about a part of history I had really no idea about. A blizzard so strong and destructive, and one that hit the great plains of the USA with little warning on a mild January day in 1888. None of the school children had brought heavy clothing and people were out shopping or letting their livestock out on this nice day.
This story follows certain incidents, through the lives of two sisters, both teachers, and what happened that day which became one of the deadliest, and how the sisters handled the storm from their respective schools.
The author mainly used fictitious characters, but a couple of them, were based on true people from that disaster.
It was interesting to see the mindset of the people and how they handled what had gone on.
There are a lot of back stories of people that help contribute to the outcome of the storm, from a news reporter who had lured people out west to the wonders of the plains, and the lure of owning land. To a homesteading woman who was so harsh on a little girl that she ran out of the schoolhouse to get home before she was punished for being late.
This story also gives us a look into what happened to the main characters after the storm had passed.
A very interesting story.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for a copy of this book.
This book reminded me of why I love historical fiction!! Woven into this story are real facts about the prairie. Not just the time of the blizzard but day after day life and what these settlers faced.
Immigrants were lured to the land with the promise of 160 acres of land if they settled it for 5 years. Many immigrants were looking for a fresh start, lured by advertising pamphlets that promised so much. “Come to Nebraska, the Garden of Eden!. Acres for the taking, acres of a bountiful land that will surely yield a harvest fit for the gods. . . .Have you longed to cultivate a land so yielding, the plow is scarcely needed to give up its rich earth? They were fed lies and misinformation but they came and settled, they made the railroads and businesses rich. They faced drought, scourges of grasshoppers eating their crops and cold and desolate snow filled winters. We owe them so much.
On January 12, 1888 the people of Nebraska woke to an especially warm morning. They had been in their houses for days because of frigid weather. The settlers sent their children to school with their lighter weight clothing and they went to town to stock up on provisions.
Without the knowledge of what was to come, none of them had any idea that a blizzard of amazing ferocity was about to hit. It would come at the worst possible time, when school was to be dismissed for the day.
Imagine being sisters Gerda 18, and Raina Olsen, just 16, both teachers. Both of these very young women were forced to make life and death decisions for the students that they taught. While the women were teaching their classes that day each made different decisions. These decisions would stay with them for the rest of their lives. One was pronounced a hero and the other shunned for her bad choices.
The author states that this is based on a true blizzard that occurred but that the characters are fictitious. She did an amazing job of breathing life into them. I really felt for the mothers and fathers, and of course the children, so many children, who would lose their life this day.
Living in an age when we get up to the minute weather conditions, it’s hard to imagine that in the 1800’s they had very little knowledge of what was to come. There isn’t an exact count of how many perished but it was hundreds and many of them children.
The first half of the book is about the blizzard and the second half is largely about Gerda and Raina and how their lives would change. Gavin Woodson is a journalist, banished to Omaha from NYC. He is one of those that wrote the advertisements luring people to the area. The storm would change his life in a dramatic way. He would find the heroes and survivors and a little girl named Annette. She is the person who ultimately changes his views on what he does and how he will help those affected by the storm.
Ms. Benjamin again has written an engaging, page turning novel which will bring you to tears at times. I can recommend this book to anyone who loves a well written, character driven novel.
This book is set to publish on January 12, 2021.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
I read this book as an ARC for NetGalley and found it truly fascinating. The day started off balmy and everyone was so excited because winter seemed to be over but it was just a trick that was played on homesteaders of the early years in America and were totally unprepared to survive this storm. Many had come from the Scandinavian countries looking for opportunities and were used to the cold harshness of winter but no one was prepared for the catastrophe that happens this day. Many people came to America and did not like living in the cities so when they were offered a chance to get their own land, build there own dream and make something that could be passed from generation to generation they accepted. Little did they know that the areas that were being offered would take it’s toll on them physically, mentally and emotionally. Farms were hard to plow with rocky soil, wood was not available for building so they lived in shanties carved out of the land, food was not easily gotten and water was sparse. They would experience horrible blizzards followed by rains and melting snow that would ruin their crops. If they made it through that, they had the bugs that descended during the hot dry windblown summers. But no one was prepared for the ultimate blizzard that dropped immense amounts of snow in a record time burying everything in it’s wake. Farmers out with there herds and the herds were frozen in place, some got lost going to their own barns and froze. The crux of this story though is the fact that teachers had to decide what they would do with the children under their care and how their decisions would effect the rest of their lives.
Sad in many places but happy and content in others and a book that every teen and young person should read today to understand what hardship past generations have gone through to achieve what we have today.