The Ingalls family struggles to survive months of blizzards in a small prairie town cut off from supplies
A winter that would not end
In the autumn of 1880, Laura Ingalls and her family are living on their homestead claim near the new town of De Smet in Dakota Territory. Early signs warn of a hard winter: muskrats build thick-walled houses, and an old man comes into town to tell the settlers that the coming winter will be long and fierce. When an October blizzard strikes, Pa moves the family into town.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about eight to twelve, and families reading aloud, who enjoy true-to-life historical stories of courage, family and pioneer life.
What you will get
A gripping, moving story of a family enduring months of blizzards with courage and ingenuity, and the most suspenseful book in the Little House series.
The Long Winter Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Children’s Books · Blizzards · Frontier life · Family
Length
352 pages · ≈ 10 h
More about this book
The storms come one after another, so close together that the trains bringing coal and food cannot get through. As the town's supplies run out, the family burns twisted sticks of hay for heat and grinds wheat in the coffee mill to make bread. Laura and her sisters do lessons and chores in a dim, freezing kitchen while the wind howls for days on end, and Pa's fiddle grows quiet as everyone becomes weaker.
When the town is close to starving, two young men, Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland, set out across the snow-covered prairie to find a settler who is rumoured to have stored grain. Their journey is one of the most exciting passages in the series. The book is based on a real winter Laura lived through, and its quiet details of daily survival make the hardship feel vivid without becoming frightening. Almanzo, who will one day marry Laura, becomes an important character from here on.
Suspenseful, warm and inspiring, a highlight of the Little House books, followed by Little Town on the Prairie. Many readers who know the series well name it as their favourite, and it is especially satisfying to read on a cold winter night. About 352 pages in the HarperTrophy paperback, with illustrations by Garth Williams.
Little House on the Prairie
Little House in the Big Woods
Sarah, Plain and Tall
These Happy Golden Years
Little Town on the Prairie
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Misty of Chincoteague
On the Banks of Plum Creek
The Borrowers
Esperanza Rising
The Tale of Peter Rabbit