Recommended for: Primary Years (K-3rd), Intermediate Years (4th-8th)

• The Long Winter Book Study with weekly lesson plans, recipes, and more
• The Long Winter Book Report Template
• The Long Winter Extension Book List
• Multimedia Reference Materials links
• Book Club Meet-up Guide

Overview of The Long Winter

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder is a historical fiction novel that tells about the unusually harsh winter of 1880-81 that brought months of blizzards and other difficulties to the Dakota Territory and the homesteaders living there. The autobiographical fiction paints a picture of frontier life and displays values that drove her family and others to move west.

The story takes place in the newly formed frontier town of De Smet. Though the Ingalls family move to 160 acres of land awarded through the Homestead Act of 1982, minimal food stores and marginal resources force 13-year-old Laura and her family to move from their new property into town to survive the seven-month winter. Throughout the winter as blizzards blanket the town with snow, they learn how to adjust to new circumstances and make the best of challenges. As the Ingalls survive the winter, the story shows the long-suffering that winter requires, and the renewal of spring that comes after.

Themes covered in this study

• Blizzards
• Pioneer life
• Trains and railroads
• Prairie landscape and wildlife
• Wheat
• One-room schools

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