After her own niece, a young school teacher, and some of her pupils were lost and found in a harsh blizzard in 1949, Mari Sandoz wrote the novella Winter Thunder to describe a similar event. A twenty-three year old teacher along with the sixteen year old bus driver and a small group of children are stranded after a sudden storm wipes out any trace of the road. Eventually the bus tips over, catches fire and they are stranded in open country, miles from any ranch house. This small group must find some kind of shelter in order to wait out the blizzard. Showing great resourcefulness and courage they manage to cling to each other and to life for a number of days until rescue comes.

The author makes no effort to soften this story. These winter storms that could and often did hit suddenly were deadly to be stranded in. This young teacher had to deal with food shortages, sickness among the children, a young man, the bus driver, who thought he should try and strike out across the country on his own, and at least one case of extreme frostbite. So much responsibility was on her young shoulders and I do believe the author meant this to be tribute to her niece.

I applaud the fact that this very short story was named one of the ten best American Short Novels by Reader’s Digest and although this is far from a thriller, the author quietly draws the reader into this survival story and I found Winter Thunder to be a compelling tale. ( )

Summary: In a blinding blizzard a schoolbus overturns and a young teacher, her seven pupils, and the driver—a mere boy—are stranded in the open country, miles and miles from the nearest ranchhouse. Thus Mari Sandoz introduces a situation that will stretch the limits of human endurance.

The exposed little group is armed with no more than the lunches they started out with and only the clothing required for a normal winter's day. As a killer storm takes hold and the mercury plunges below zero they become desperate. How each character facesthe terrifying prospect of freezing to death is a story that has become a small classic. And because it is based upon fact—the author's niece experienced much the same ordeal in the paralyzing midwestern blizzard of January 1949—it has the ring of undisputed truth.