Book Reviews: The Long Winter

To continue on with my Laura Ingalls Wilder theme, I have also re-read The Long Winter.   Another amazing book about the life of a pioneer girl.   This is the first one not be set in a new location, as De Smet, where By the Shores of Silver Lake was set, was where the family stopped moving.   As the book opens the family are settled in their claim shanty and it's late summer.   They get warnings about the winter to come being very long and hard, and sure enough, the first blizzard arrives in October.   The townsfolk batten down the hatches, but the blizzards go on and on.   They are underprepared for winter and the trains can't through with coal.   The family get by by burning hay, twisted tightly into sticks, and by eating stored potatoes and bread made from flour ground in the coffee mill.   Eventually though, wheat runs low and the situation becomes desperate.   Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland decide to try and help.   There's a rumour that somewhere in the area a farmsteader has wheat.   Almanzo and Cap set out, miraculously find him and persuade him to part with some of it, and save the day.   Eventually May comes and the snow melts and the trains start running again.  

Once again, another great book from Laura Ingalls Wilder.   The hardship they came through was amazing.   As usual, the human ingenuity is amazing, and the way they kept their spirits up was so inspiring, not to mention Almanzo and Cap's heroism.   The kindness and love within the family is so nice too.   A really good read.