The children's blizzard a novel
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. "Melanie Benjamin never fails to c...
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| Format: | Audiobooks eAudiobook Downloads eAudiobook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Random House Audio,
2021.
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| Edition: | Unabridged. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Go to Downloadable Audiobook Here. |
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| Summary: | 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. "Melanie Benjamin never fails to create compelling, unforgettable characters and place them against the backdrop of startling history.” -- Lisa Wingate, author of The Book of Lost Friends 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. |
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| Item Description: | Unabridged. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (11 audio files) : digital |
| Playing Time: | 11:25:39 |
| Format: | Requires OverDrive Listen (file size: N/A KB) or OverDrive app (file size: 321441 KB). |
| ISBN: | 9780525492795 |
| Author Notes: | After college Melanie married and moved to the Chicago area to raise her children, but the desire to write was always there in the background. Soon she began writing for local magazines and newspapers before venturing into fiction. As Melanie Hauser she published two contemporary novels. Now writing as Melanie Benjamin, she's incorporated her passion for history and biography into ALICE I HAVE BEEN her first historical novel; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB is her second, and was published July 2011. Her book,The Aviator's Wife, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2013. The Swans of Fifth Avenue made the iBooks best seller list in 2016. Melanie and her family still live in the Chicago area where she enjoys writing, taking long walks, and gardening. (Bowker Author Biography) |
