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The children's blizzard : a novel / Melanie Benjamin.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: SoundSoundPublisher number: PRHA 6803 | Penguin Random House AudioPublisher: New York : Random House Audio, [2021]Copyright date: ©℗2021Edition: UnabridgedDescription: 9 audio discs (approximately 11 hr., 30 min.) ; 4 3/4 inContent type:
  • spoken word
Media type:
  • audio
Carrier type:
  • audio disc
ISBN:
  • 9780525492764
  • 0525492763
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Read by Cassandra Campbell.Summary: 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 just 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 who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Audiobook Adult Audiobook Dr. James Carlson Library Audiobook FICTION BENJAMIN MELANIE Checked out 05/18/2024 33111009924131
Adult Audiobook Adult Audiobook Main Library Audiobook FICTION BENJAMIN MELANIE Available 33111009924149
Adult Audiobook Adult Audiobook Northport Library Audiobook FICTION BENJAMIN MELANIE Available 33111009924198
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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 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.

Title from container.

Read by Cassandra Campbell.

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 just 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 who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath.

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