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\nBook Summary:
\nFrom the \ ;New York Times \;bestselling author of \;The Aviator's Wife \;comes a story of courage on the prairie\, inspired by the devast ating storm that struck the Great Plains in 1888\, threatening the lives o f hundreds of immigrant homesteaders\, especially schoolchildren.
\nThe morning of January 12\, 1888\, was unusually mild\, following a punish ing cold spell. It was warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota Terr itory to venture out again\, and for their children to return to school wi thout their heavy coats-leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At t he hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day\, a terrify ing\, fast-moving blizzard blew in without warning. Schoolteachers as youn g as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions- Keep the c hildren inside\, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out\, or send the m home\, praying they wouldn't get lost in the storm?
\nBased on act ual 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 G avin Woodson\, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It was Woodson and other s like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured northern Euro pean immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed them to settle territories into states\, and they didn't care what lies th ey told these families to get them there-or whose land it originally was.< /p>\n
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 familie s 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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