The Long Winter (novel) facts for kids
Front dust jacket with Sewell's illustration
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| Author | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
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| Illustrator | Helen Sewell and Mildred Boyle Garth Williams (1953) |
| Country | United states |
| Series | Little House |
| Genre | Children's novel Family saga Western |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
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Publication date
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June 15, 1940 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 325; 334 pp. |
| ISBN | 0-06-026461-6 (lib. bdg.); 0060264608 |
| OCLC | 504334768 |
| LC Class | PZ7.W6461 Lo |
| Preceded by | By the Shores of Silver Lake |
| Followed by | Little Town on the Prairie |
The Long Winter is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1940, the sixth of nine books in her Little House series. It is set in southeastern Dakota Territory during the severe winter of 1880–1881, when she turned 14 years old.
The novel was one runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1941, as were all the fourth to eighth Little House books from 1938 to 1943. In retrospect they are called Newbery Honor Books.
Plot summary
On a hot August day in the 1880s, at the Ingallses' homestead in Dakota Territory, Laura offers to help Pa stack hay to feed their stock in the winter. As they work, she notices a muskrat den in the nearby Big Slough. Upon inspecting it, Pa notes that its walls are the thickest he has ever seen, and fears it is a warning that the upcoming winter will be a very hard one.
In mid-October, the Ingallses wake to an early blizzard howling around their poorly insulated claim shanty. Soon afterward, Pa receives another warning from an unexpected source: an old Native American man comes to the general store in town to warn the white settlers that hard winters come in seven-year cycles and the hardest comes at the end of the third cycle. The coming winter is that twenty-first winter, and there will be seven months of blizzards. Pa decides to move his family into his store building in town for the winter.
In town, Laura attends school with her younger sister, Carrie, until the weather becomes too unpredictable to permit them to walk to and from the school building, and coal too scarce to keep it heated. Blizzard after blizzard sweeps through the town over the next few months. Food and fuel become scarce and expensive, as the town depends on the railroad to bring supplies but the frequent blizzards prevent trains from getting through. Eventually, the railroad company suspends all efforts to dig out the trains that are snowed in at Tracy, stranding the town until spring.
With no more coal or wood, the Ingallses learn to use twisted hay for fuel. As the last of the town's meager food supplies run out, Laura's future husband, Almanzo Wilder, and his friend, Cap Garland, hear rumors that a settler raised wheat at a claim twenty miles from town. They risk their lives to bring sixty bushels of it to the starving townspeople – enough to last the rest of the winter.
As predicted, the blizzards continue for seven months. Finally, the spring thaw comes and trains begin running again, bringing in much-needed supplies and the Ingallses' long-delayed Christmas barrel from Reverend Alden, containing clothes, presents, and a Christmas turkey. With the long winter finally over, they enjoy their long-delayed Christmas celebration in May.
