Guest post by Karen Witham In which our hero and his brave sidekick set out in search of lifesaving wheat… The chapter opens: “In the third night of that storm a stillness woke Almanzo.” There is then a rather touching…

Guest post by Jennye Woolf It is funny that this chapter is titled “Breathing Spell” since the entire chapter seems as though people are holding their breath waiting for the next shoe to drop. It starts off still but so…

We’re back at the feed store. Blizzards leave a lot of time for thinking, and Almanzo spends his days doing just that — not cracking jokes or even seeming to notice his chores as he does them. Even more shocking,…

Guest post by Karen Witham Coffee grinder This remarkably short chapter (in my Harper Trophy 1971 paperback, it’s three pages) is all about food, or really, the lack thereof. It opens with the family eating the last of the potatoes.…

We wake up to find the cozy tunnel gone, the snowdrifts scoured (again with that word, which I didn’t realize how evocative it was until Wendy brought it up) down to the bare ground. We also find out it is…

Before I launch into the chapter summary, I’d like to address a few things from “Fair Weather“: Did anyone catch the reference to Ma writing her letter? She writes it horizontally, the way one normally writes a letter, and then…

By now the blizzards are coming to life in Laura’s dreams as monsters, as she sleeps to the sound of the ice-sand scouring the roof.  That scouring noise of the blizzards—a recurring description throughout the book—has always struck me as…

Guest post by Barbara Mayes Boustead The chapter begins on a hopeful note, on a day full of sunshine.  After the day’s chores, Pa heads across the street to hear the news.  He returns with 4 pounds of ox meat…