Book Review: "The Children's Blizzard" By Melanie Benjamin

Spellbinding! Captivating! Magnificent!

If there's ever a chance for you to read this book please make sure you pick it up as you'll be swept away in the moment of these young children's lives and those directed to save them.
These poor souls who froze to death in a blizzard was the most heart wrenching situation I've ever cross across. It's made more difficult when you learn that the reasons behind it all was for the sake of a brighter future.

It was during 1888, a time when nations were starting to form, and those in charge sought to give incentives to bring them to their state. Dakota territory as it was known then was one of those states in which they used propaganda, fake news, and lies to bring the immigrants and settlers in by the droves.

Honestly, I can't recall a more thorough, well researched, and fully inclusive book like this one that made you raw with tears and forever altered by the memory of those who lost their lives especially these elementary aged children. According to Wikipedia, "The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard, School Children's Blizzard, or Children's Blizzard, hit the U.S. plains states on January 12, 1888. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a relatively warm day, and many people were caught unaware, including children in one-room schoolhouses."

The result sadly was 235 fatalities in the Mid Western USA after 6 inches of snowfall accumulated on January 12, 1888.

The way this story was portrayed was so beautiful. It began with a 16 yo. teacher who had to make a decision - to allow her students to leave to walk home in this blizzard- or stay and pray the heat stays on and they don't all perish in the school as the conditions were treacherous.

Wikipedia further notes: Why was the blizzard of 1888 so dangerous?
More than 400 people died from the storm and the ensuing cold, including 200 in New York City alone. Efforts were made to push the snow into the Atlantic Ocean. Severe flooding occurred after the storm due to melting snow, especially in the Brooklyn area, which was susceptible to flooding because of its topography.

Everything about this story was so engaging, dramatic, and deeply touching as the characters were so vivid, active, and engrossing.

As the premise was written we learned :
Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the 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. 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 is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn't care what lies they told them to get them there--or whose land it originally was.

Just imagine the thoughts that were going through everyone's minds that day. Scary to think these children had to grow up so darn fast.

Over the years we've witnessed first hand what climate change can do and how global warming affects everyone.

This story was based on real people but used alternative names and it was a deeply traumatic time for these individuals as nine children died that day in this story.

The teacher held those kids to her bosom as if they were her own and it was just a difficult read because I've experienced similar here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

We had an EF2 tornado touch down not just in Pittston Pa in 2017 while I was at the movie theatre with my mother in Moosic Pa. We had to leave early when the emergency broadcast alerts came over our cell phones. Unfortunately, I left my phone in the car so I had to rely upon complete strangers around me to relay messages.

Immediately, I gathered my belongings, had my mother wait inside the theatre, and I ran out to grab the car and bolt like lighting back home.

Home was almost where the EF2 had touched down and having lived through blizzards of 96 and numerous others this tornado along with the Wilkes Barre Township Pa (my current location) was simply too unnerving. https://www.pahomepage.com/news/pitts...
https://www.timesleader.com/news/7080...
I was in both of these in a wooden plank 2 bedroom single family home (old coal miner's house). I ran to the cellar with our 3 kids afraid, alone, in the dark, huddled under a mattress.

My most memorable blizzard was that of '96 in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania resulting in 31 inches of snow. The National Guard had to rescue us in Bear Creek Pennsylvania (boondocks) where I used to reside when I was a kid. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/penns...
So, this isn't unusual but it was the circumstances and timing that created a horrific set of consequences in this novel.

The Children's Blizzard is one you'll most definitely want to add to your must reads.