Christmas Blizzard

The inimitable Garrison Keillor spins "a Christmas tale that makes Dickens seem unimaginative by comparison" (Charlotte Creative Loafing) Snow is falling all across the Midwest as James Sparrow, a country- bumpkin-turned-energy-drink-tycoon, and his wife awaken in their sky- rise apartment overlooking Chicago. Even down with the stomach bug, Mrs. Sparrow yearns to see The Nutcracker while James yearns only to escape-the faux-cheer, the bitter cold, the whole Christmas season. An urgent phone call from his hometown of Looseleaf, North Dakota, sends James into the midst of his lunatic relatives and a historic blizzard. As he hunkers weather the storm, the electricity goes out and James is visited by a parade of figures who deliver him an epiphany worthy of the season, just in time to receive Mrs. Sparrow's wonderful Christmas gift. Garrison Keillor's holiday farce is the perfect gift for the millions of fans who tune into A Prairie Home Companion every week.

Join Nicholas and his grandfather as they push aside the thoughts of decorating the Christmas tree to lovingly care for a cardinal trapped in the snow of a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning finds Nicholas more concerned about the bird than opening his gifts.

Old Maynard Jenkins tells about the terrible blizzard that occurred one Christmas when he was a boy, when the weather was so cold in Lizzard, Indiana, that Santa Claus moved his workshop there and it snowed for two weeks straight.

His daughter vanishes in a holiday blizzard And time is running out… Only days before Christmas, Joe Webster’s teen daughter is kidnapped from a party…just as a monster snowstorm closes down the mountains. Ex-marine Linda Jameson and her K-9, Zero, are his one slim chance to rescue Aster. But between brutal obstacles and ruthless killers striking back, Joe and Linda must put their troubled past aside to live through the ferocious night…

Despite a blizzard, Christmas comes to a small church in unexpected ways.

A woman's first Christmas on Martha's Vineyard comes with a mysterious surprise gift in a heartfelt novel that “brims with holiday cheer” (Library Journal). In her cozy rented cottage on Chappaquiddick, novelist Annie Sutton is finally following her dream of living on Martha's Vineyard. As she settles in for her first Vineyard winter, a fierce nor'easter brings high winds and deep snow. But the blizzard also brings something unexpected to Annie's front porch: a baby girl in a basket. The note reads: “I named her Bella, after my grandmother. Please help her, because I can't.” Annie has always been grateful for her adoptive parents who raised her as their own. Yet she now hopes to spare little Bella the feelings of abandonment that still haunt her. Rather than take the baby to the police, Annie tries to find the birth mother, giving her a chance to change her mind. But it's not easy keeping a secret in a close-knit island community, especially amid the bustle of Christmas. Before the holiday ends, there will be revelations, rekindled hope, and proof that families—the ones we are born into and the ones we claim for ourselves—are the gifts that truly matter.

Whipping wind blows snow into tall drifts across the road. Will cars be able to pass? This dilemma is just one effect of the powerful storms discussed in this low-level title. Engaging text and vibrant photos combine to tell readers how blizzards form, how they are forecast, and what damage they can cause. Special features such as a map, a formation diagram, a windchill chart, and a notable blizzard profile add to readers’ understanding of this brutal natural disaster.

What kind of crazy, windy weather do the townspeople predict for Christmas?

For Kathleen, Christmas has always been an unwelcome reminder of her father's abandonment almost three tumultuous decades ago. Although she has tried to forget her past, it has not forgotten her, and in the days leading up to Christmas, an unforgiving blizzard traps her in her home with two unlikely roommates who bring her face to face with the hurts of her past-and the hope of a happier future. Will she let go of the past and grad hold of a future full of love and forgiveness? Or will she continue to be haunted by her pain as the snow storm of the century brings with it the hope of lasting joy?

On January 12, 1888, a sudden blizzard barreled across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory. Blinding snow and howling wind took rural towns by surprise. Many children were stranded in one-room schoolhouses. Far from their homes on the Midwestern prairie, would the people caught in the storm survive? To understand the impact of a disaster, you must understand its causes. How did warm weather earlier in the day give people a false sense of safety? How did the lack of an accurate forecast contribute to the severity of the disaster? Investigate the disaster from a cause-and-effect perspective and find out!