When John Hale's parents moved from Chicago to a farm in the Dakota Territory in the late 1880s, he was not happy (too hot in summer, too cold in winter, and that is just the beginning); but after a year, and now eleven, he has settled in and made some friends at school--but when a sunny day in January 1888 turns abruptly into a deadly blizzard he will need all his strength and courage to survive what became known to history as The Children's Blizzard....

Uses materials from letters and diaries written by survivors of the Donner Party to relate the experiences of that ill-fated group as they endured horrific circumstances on their way to California in 1846-47.

Eleven-year-old John Hale has already survived one brutal Dakota winter, and now he's about to experience one of the deadliest blizzards in American history. The storm of 1888 was a monster, a frozen hurricane that slammed into America's midwest without warning. Within hours, America's prairie would be buried under ten feet of snow. Hundreds would be dead, thousands terrified and lost and freezing. John never wanted to move to the wide-open prairie....

After an October blizzard, Laura's family moves from the claim shanty into town for the winter, a winter that an Indian has predicted will be seven months of bad weather.

In this newly revised edition, John and his sister Emily live with their family in a farming community. After rising at sun-up to do their chores on the farm and in the household, John and Emily's day begins with a long walk to the one-room school. A Child's Day also describes: reading and ciphering, "making their manners," the different expectations boys and girls had for their future, children's books, toys, and games.

Provides instructions for creating seventeen traditional crafts ranging from basket weaving and candle making to quilting and soap making, and discusses each craft's importance to frontier families.