It's the worst blizzard in fifty years! Delores is very ill, but there's
no way to get through the snow. How long will she be stranded at school?
Out on the South Dakota prairie, the winters are fierce. This storm is
the worst one yet: It's below freezing outside, and the winds are
howling. All of the other kids have gone home, but Delores's family
can't get to her, so she has to stay at the school. Between a fuel
shortage and having to boil snow for drinking water, it's been hard for
both Delores and her teacher, Miss Martin. Now Delores is very ill. How
will Miss Martin get her to the doctor in all this snow? Prairie School
was inspired by letters from children at a real South Dakota prairie
school, which Lenski then visited during the severe blizzards of the
winter of 1950. "Miss Lenski's real understanding of her prairie
children makes this another distinguished . . . regional story." -The
Horn Book Magazine Born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1893, Lois Lenski
achieved acclaim as both an author and illustrator of children's
literature. For her Regional America series, Lenski traveled to each of
the places that became a subject of one of her books. She did meticulous
research and spoke with children and adults in the various regions to
create stories depicting the lives of the inhabitants of those areas.
Her novel of Florida farm life, Strawberry Girl, won the Newbery Award
in 1946. She also received a Newbery Honor in 1942 for Indian Captive, a
fictionalized account of the life of Mary Jemison. Lenski died in 1974.
