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jenbsbooks 's review for:
I Survived the Children's Blizzard, 1888
by Lauren Tarshis
This was my 2nd "I Survived" book ... I had a stack of them, and figured I should read at least one during my #middlegradeMay challenge. I'd read [book:The Children's Blizzard|53425138] and remember being a bit haunted by it.
I went primarily with the audio, but had the Kindle and a physical copy. The cover has a decent image, but all of the chapters started with the image of a covered wagon in a prairie. This just didn't fit for me, the trek was done, they people were settled into houses, kids going to schools ... why is there a picture of this covered wagon over and over? It really annoyed me!
This starts with the "drop you right into the action" ploy (chap1) then goes back in time and builds up to that moment. It's a technique that is used a lot in movies and books, but I dislike it. It's a spoiler, although in this case ... we do pretty much know there's going to be a blizzard. I never was exactly sure when we caught up to this scene, it was never recreated exactly.
There were 21 chapters, and the blizzard is in chapters 14-18 ... it was a rather slow build-up before (despite chapter1). The chapters were very short, often ending on a cliffhanger moment. I did think that it is more interesting to learn about historical events in a fictionalized story like this.
In audio, the book itself had a male narrator, and he did a good job. At the end, there were Author's Notes (My Prairie Journey) and some Q&A about the time/location and blizzard. Here again, much of it was general stuff, not directly about the blizzard (how big was the US in 1888, did the grasshopper attacks really happen, prairie life ...) Per the title, the BLIZZARD was my main interest. I believe it was the author (it was a narrator change, female) voicing this part, and I was grateful for that. It makes it so much more personal.
I went primarily with the audio, but had the Kindle and a physical copy. The cover has a decent image, but all of the chapters started with the image of a covered wagon in a prairie. This just didn't fit for me, the trek was done, they people were settled into houses, kids going to schools ... why is there a picture of this covered wagon over and over? It really annoyed me!
This starts with the "drop you right into the action" ploy (chap1) then goes back in time and builds up to that moment. It's a technique that is used a lot in movies and books, but I dislike it. It's a spoiler, although in this case ... we do pretty much know there's going to be a blizzard. I never was exactly sure when we caught up to this scene, it was never recreated exactly.
There were 21 chapters, and the blizzard is in chapters 14-18 ... it was a rather slow build-up before (despite chapter1). The chapters were very short, often ending on a cliffhanger moment. I did think that it is more interesting to learn about historical events in a fictionalized story like this.
In audio, the book itself had a male narrator, and he did a good job. At the end, there were Author's Notes (My Prairie Journey) and some Q&A about the time/location and blizzard. Here again, much of it was general stuff, not directly about the blizzard (how big was the US in 1888, did the grasshopper attacks really happen, prairie life ...) Per the title, the BLIZZARD was my main interest. I believe it was the author (it was a narrator change, female) voicing this part, and I was grateful for that. It makes it so much more personal.