The Children's Blizzard Audiobook By David Laskin cover art

The Children's Blizzard

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Children's Blizzard

By: David Laskin
Narrated by: Paul Woodson
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.75

Buy for $13.75

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

January 12, 1888, began as an unseasonably warm morning across Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, the weather so mild that children walked to school without coats and gloves. But that afternoon, without warning, the atmosphere suddenly, violently changed. One moment the air was calm; the next the sky exploded in a raging chaos of horizontal snow and hurricane-force winds. Temperatures plunged as an unprecedented cold front ripped through the center of the continent.

By Friday morning, January 13, some 500 people lay dead on the drifted prairie, many of them children who had perished on their way home from country schools. In a few terrifying hours, the hopes of the pioneers had been blasted by the bitter realities of their harsh environment. Recent immigrants from Germany, Norway, Denmark, and Ukraine learned that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled.

©2004 David Laskin (P)2016 Tantor
Americas Environment Natural Disasters Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science State & Local United States Weather
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Critic reviews

"A gripping story, well told." ( School Library Journal)
Well-researched History • Compelling Personal Stories • Emotional Delivery • Informative Weather Details • Excellent Voice
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
I wouldn’t describe myself as a big history or meteorology buff, but I really enjoyed this. It was well-researched, well-written, and well-performed. If you like moody natural disaster stories like the dramatic BBC Yellowstone Volcano documentary, I think you’ll enjoy this.

Fascinating nonfiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

...this will change your mind. Every negative thing that could happen to a group of people happened to these people. They survived one tragedy after another only to be mowed down by an unexpected winter storm. There was a fair amount of tangenting by the author, but I took that as letting us know the subjects as well as possible and appreciated the inclusion of so much detail. It is amazing there were so many letters and writings still in existence describing the era. I found it very enlightening.

If you ever wished you were a pioneer...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If there is a story to be told from the blizzard most likely it is somewhere in this book. He covers every angle from the signal men to the survivors. Well written and detailed.

No Stone Unturned

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I had never heard of this and am trying to learn more about the western expansion of the US. This book really brings to life what it was like to settle in the plains. I have a deeper understanding of how hard people lived in the past to have even the basic things.

Great story and narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

interesting story. very in depth on the weather forecasting for the era which I enjoy but some may find a little dry. the narrator has an unusual style with long pauses at the end of some paragraphs but I got used to it. He has a nice reading voice so it was overall enjoyable.

great read for a weather buff!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

🌨 for a book about weather, this was good. I was pleasantly surprised. I loved hearing about some local historical too.

For a book about weather, this is good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Very factual and riveting all done with superlative narration. I listened to this on the day after the huge winter storm blew in to make it all the more real.

Great Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I liked the detailed history and how he brought info and compassion into this sad story.

So much info

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book was very close to what I was looking for when I bought it. My complaint revolves around the author trying to cram to much data and mostly irrelevant facts into the book. I think this was a seven hour audio book extended to nearly twelve hours unnecessarily. Overall, I really found it interesting, even some of the excess information, but it would be better if it got to the point with a bit more focus.

I would like to give five stars, but...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A fast read filled with history. I recommend to anyone curious about American culture, especially for the prairie.

great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews