September 6, 2012

Read This!: The Children's Blizzard

By David Laskin

Book Challenge: Book about weather

I didn’t realize it would be so hard to find a challenge book about weather.  So, to find one, I searched on Amazon for things like “weather” and “blizzard” and found this book.

On January 12, 1888, the day started warmer than it had been for weeks.  In minutes, the temperature dropped and a blizzard descended on the Great Plains taking people unawares.  By the time it was over, hundreds of people were dead, frozen to death on the prairie, many of these were children caught out trying to get home from school. 

The Children’s Blizzard starts by explaining why people moved to the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Nebraska in the first place, what their life was like, how the weather event occurred (snooze fest IMO.  A picture would have helped here big time), weather prediction in the late 1800s (a lot of info on this as well especially considering that the weatherman who was made the scapegoat for not informing people the blizzard was coming couldn’t have made the prediction based on the available tools), and then their own personal stories.  The personal stories were the most interesting like how someone could have survived days stuck out in those temperatures as they waited for someone to find them.  I also found the parts describing the effects of hypothermia and extreme cold on the body to be really interesting.

Midwestern winters stink.  I know because I have experienced them myself and they are reason enough to never want to live in the Midwest.  But, nothing I lived through compares to what these people dealt with.  As a result, here is a list of things I am thankful for:

1.       I don’t live in a sod house.
2.       I have indoor plumbing and a furnace.
3.       I have 21st century medical care.
4.       When the blizzard hit last year, I was safe at home.  Snug as a bug.
5.       I have an office job.
6.       My telephone.

I would never have made it as a pioneer I think.  Going to the farmers’ market is about as rustic as I want to get.

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