Lost in the Blizzard

Brenda Baltensperger is a playwright, a director of children’s
theatre, an editor of children’s fiction, and the author of Fractured
Fairy-tales.

When a blizzard warning is issued, students are told to go straight
home. Marnie Carder, who has recently moved to Winnipeg from Victoria,
is told to pick up her younger brother, Chris. Chris at first heads off
to a friend’s house and only later agrees to accompany his sister
home. With the temperatures dropping quickly and the snow falling thick
and fast, the children lose their bearings. They find shelter in a house
that is under construction. To keep warm, they gather scraps of wood and
other debris and light a fire in the fireplace.

Meanwhile their mother has reported them missing, and the police are
out looking for them. Marnie manages to keep Chris warm and dry until
morning, when a neighbor calls the police and reports seeing smoke
coming out of the chimney.

Despite the children’s ingenuity, the message here is that children
should pay attention when they are warned about danger. Lost in the
Blizzard is an adventure that children in the Prairie Provinces can
identify with and that communicates some useful survival techniques (for
example, during a blizzard find shelter as quickly as possible, and
don’t go to sleep or you will freeze to death). Recommended.