Winter Thunder

Winter Thunder has been named by the Reader’s Digest as one of the ten best American short novels.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.