First sentence: A deadly blizzard raged across the prairie, and eleven-year-old John Hale was trapped in a frozen nightmare.
Premise/plot: John Hale is facing his second winter in Dakota territory. It may be his last if he can't outsmart a super-storm.
It may be his second winter, but John Hale still doesn't feel like he belongs there; he still feels like a city boy. (His family was originally from Chicago.) He doesn't have any close friends though that may be because he distances himself from the other students.
Will this storm prove he belongs?
My thoughts: I believe this is the first 'I Survived..." book I've read. Perhaps if I'd read this one in elementary school I would have found it exciting, intense, compelling. Perhaps. Though the fact that it says 'I Survived' right in the title takes away some of the suspense. Readers know that John Hale couldn't possibly die right from the start. Since the suspense element was never really there for me... were there other elements that would lead me to love it? Not really. I liked John Hale well enough. I didn't dislike him. But. He is really the only character that is developed at all. Is it asking too much that at least one other member of his family--perhaps all members of his family--be slightly more developed? More attention is paid to a snake, "King Rattler," than to any member of his family or any of his classmates. Keeping it personal, the more a book includes SNAKE and SNAKE DEVELOPMENT the less likely I am to enjoy it.
I have no other book in the series to compare it to. Perhaps this isn't the best in the series? Perhaps others would be more enjoyable? Perhaps I'm too adult to enjoy these?
© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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