The Children's Blizzard

The dawn of January 12, 1888, was remarkably temperate after a harsh period of low temperatures. The Dakota Territory's homesteaders felt comfortable enough to step outside once again, and their kids went back to school without their bulky jackets, which left them unprepared for the impending calamity. A terrible fast-moving snowstorm swept in without warning at the hour most prairie schools were closing for the day. Suddenly, schoolteachers as young as sixteen had to make life-or-death decisions: should they send the kids home in the hopes that they wouldn't get lost in the storm, or should they keep them inside and risk freezing to death when the fuel ran out?

This compelling book tells the tales of two sisters, Raina and Gerda Olsen, who are both schoolteachers. One becomes a hero during the storm, while the other experiences exclusion in its wake. The stories are based on the real-life testimonies of survivors. Additionally, it tells the tale of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose extraordinary survival marks a turning point in her life and moves Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman looking for atonement, to tears. Woodson and similar individuals were responsible for crafting the exaggerated news reports that enticed immigrants from northern Europe to go across the ocean to inhabit a harsh territory. Boosters didn't care what falsehoods they told these people to bring them there or whose property it was originally; they just wanted them to help settle territories into states.

This is essentially a bravery narrative about kids who are compelled to grow up too quickly and are bonded to the land as a result of their parents' decisions. It is a tale of love blossoming in the harsh prairie soil and of families being shattered by a violent storm that is little remembered in modern times—because a large number of its victims were immigrants to our nation.