The Children's Blizzard

 

“The Children’s Blizzard” by Melanie Benjamin

Finished 2/19/21 – 5/5 stars

Published by Random House

 

Bravo!  Bravo!  What a fabulous historical fiction.  I’m not a huge fan of reading books that take place in the 1800s but because the subject matter was children and the author is well known for other titles, I thought I might enjoy it.  And I truly did.  As a bonus, I learned about an event in American history that I was not aware of. 

A horrific blizzard in the prairies with zero visibility, in a time when there weren’t timely weather forecasts so people were unprepared and taken by surprise.  To make the situation worse, the storm arrives just as children have been released or are about to be released from school.  This is the fictional telling of this storm based on the lives of those children and their teachers trying to walk home, praying they are going in the right direction.  And after it passes, the aftermath it leaves behind of bodies frozen in the snow, amputations from frost bite, and lives ruined.  All of this makes for a true page turner. 

I highly recommend this book.  Not only do I think it’s a great book for pleasure reading (especially while snowed/iced in myself) but I think it would be a good book for high schoolers to read for an assignment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.