Every time I think this series is over, I see more new books!
Maddy lives in the Dakota Territory in 1888. She's from St. Paul, so she's a city girl and everyone makes it clear that she isn't cut out for this kind of life. They're pretty abusive actually.
One day in January, the weather is very nice so it's off to school for Maddy, though her aunt forces her to take her heavy cloak. It's a good thing, too. A powerful blizzard hits and Maddy and the other students are trapped in the school.
The oldest boys head for one of their homes to get help, but too much time passes and after a window breaks, Maddy insists they need to risk getting to her home, which is very close. I love how Maddy strengthened herself and went from bullied city girl to having good suggestions and keeping everyone going. She turns her cloak into a rope that holds all the remaining students and their teacher together, and then they go out into the blizzard. It's not an easy journey and it's the stupid teacher that almost messes it up, but Maddy gets everyone to her house and earns their respect.
This one doesn't pull any punches though. Those two older boys who never came back to the school got lost and were found frozen to death. The teacher might lose some toes and I think they mentioned others that died. Wikipedia says there were 235 fatalities.
I enjoyed this one because I'd never heard of this incident before, and I liked Maddy as a character.
1935 Oklahoma. Must be the Dust Bowl.
I liked this one as much as I could. The father is horribly stubborn about leaving his family farm, but it should have been clear long before that there was no way this was going to end well. Then the family faces hatred in California and it takes them a while to get back on their feet, but they do by working together with other fellow migrants.
I liked Millie and some of the minor characters, but I really didn't care for Millie's dad at all. He comes around eventually but still meh.
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