City of Snow: The Great Blizzard of 1888 [Hardcover]

Linda Oatman High (Author), Laura Francesca Filippucci (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004 | Age Level: 4 and up

It was Sunday morning, March 11, 1888, and rain was falling, spraying a steady tempest from heaven.

With spring just around the corner, New Yorkers have no reason to suspect that one of the United States's greatest natural disasters is brewing. By Monday evening a ferocious blizzard would completely shut down the largest city in the country.

Trapped by the storm, a young girl and her family struggle on as even the smallest daily routines of life in the city grind to a halt-- electric and telegraph lines go down, trains and buildings alike are buried in the snow, and the streets are impassable, with no way to deliver fresh food, milk, or coal for heat. Life must go on, but both the family and the city are forever changed by the awesome might and majesty of the Great Blizzard of 1888.

A pivotal moment in American history vividly brought to life by Linda Oatman High's free-verse narration and Laura Francesca Filippucci's detailed, timeless illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3–This fictional account follows the days before and after the storm through the eyes of a girl and her family. The story is told in free verse and the rhymes are either odd ("Howling winds rattled the windows/like careless thieves,/and the eaves wheezed") or much too flowery for picture-book readers ("we battled the blizzard,/which was like a wild animal/rattling a cage"). While the realistically rendered illustrations, done in pen and ink and watercolor, give an accurate and interesting view of 19th-century New York City, the text is static and dry, without the benefit of lively or exciting details. At one point, the family trudges through the snow in order to attend a circus performance, which seems bizarre given the severity of the storm. Carla Stevens's Anna, Grandpa and the Big Storm (Puffin, 1988) or Charles M. and Margaret K. Wetterer's The Snow Walker (Carolrhoda, 1996) are much better titles on this blizzard.–Susan Lissim, Dwight School, New York City
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 1-3. In her author's note to this story-in-verse, High writes that New York City suffered "enormous" destruction from a massive blizzard that struck in 1888. Even so, the "Great White Hurricane" doesn't seem to threaten High's fictional narrator, a little girl whose family is only mildly inconvenienced by the city's paralysis, even attending P. T. Barnum's circus while the storm rages. As she did for Depression-era Atlantic City in The Girl on the High-Diving Horse (2003), High conjures a snowbound Victorian New York through sharply etched details: "Howling winds rattled the windows / like careless thieves, / and the eaves wheezed, / heaving as if the house were breathing." At times, High's narrow columns of verse seem overworked, with the poetic devices falling as fast and furious as the snow itself. Choose this as a wintry read-aloud; listeners can then experience the poetry's drifting musicality while losing themselves in Filipucci's lovely, Currier & Ives-style cityscapes, which beautifully capture both the eeriness and tranquility of a city blanketed in white. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers; Original edition (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802789102
• ISBN-13: 978-0802789105
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,145,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm an author of books for children and teens, and I teach writing workshops and do author presentations. For a LOT about me, please see www.lindaoatmanhigh.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful pictures, terrible writing, July 2, 2007

By 

Chris Torrence (Louisville, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Snow: The Great Blizzard of 1888 (Hardcover)

How did the text for this book ever make it past the editors? It's a shame, because the pictures are very well done. A straightforward prose version would have been much better than the strangely worded "poetry".

5.0 out of 5 stars We enjoy this book a lot, August 22, 2007

By 

Former English teacher and father of two (Belmont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Snow: The Great Blizzard of 1888 (Hardcover)

We received this book as a gift, and our son, now almost 7, has enjoyed hearing us read this to him, on and off, for a couple of years now. I'm a former English teacher, and while this book's poetry won't be confused with the works of Wallace Stevens or Robert Frost, it is easily a cut above the standard kiddie fare. In addition to traditional end-rhymes, the author also uses many different rhyming devices - notably consonance, assonance, and alliteration - to tell the story of one girl's experience during the Great Blizzard of 1888. This has lead to some good questions about how people lived in 1888, the importance of weather, and the things people used to do for fun. This is very ambitious for a children's book, and frankly, I find it a welcome break from the Dr. Suess "one fish, two fish" style that everyone else seems to favor. Nice illustrations, too. If you are tired of the other children's titles that constantly make the rounds, give this story a try.