I Survived the Children's Blizzard, 1888: Chapters 10–21

by Lauren Tarshis
In this sixteenth book of the historical fiction I Survived series, eleven-year-old John Hale is skating outside his schoolhouse in Dakota Territory, when he sees a big, dark cloud moving very fast across the land.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–21
35 words 56 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. fret
    worry unnecessarily or excessively
    “Who ever heard of a blizzard in September?” Ma fretted.
  2. cellar
    a room that is partly or wholly below ground level
    And so if they wanted to eat during the frozen months, they had to fill their cellar with food before the first big snows.
  3. harvest
    gather, as of natural products
    But they still had to harvest the potatoes and turnips, which grew underground.
  4. squash
    edible fruit from plants of the gourd family
    If this blizzard kept up and the ground froze, those potatoes and turnips would rot. So would the pumpkins and squash still ripening on their vines.
  5. dreary
    lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise
    It was a cold and dreary October morning and they were finally heading back to school.
  6. barrel
    move headlong at high speed
    Rex, Peter, and Sven came barreling over to him.
  7. divvy
    separate into parts or portions
    They’d divvy up whatever food they’d brought from home.
  8. plain
    simple
    John found it amazing—this was a kid who’d stared down a monster snake, and a plain old rat gave him the willies!
  9. billowing
    characterized by great swelling waves or surges
    It was a cloud of some kind, dirty gray and billowing, and stretching out across the land.
  10. sift
    move as if through a sieve
    Crushed bits of snow sifted down his collar and blew up his sleeves and trouser legs.
  11. muster
    summon up, call forth, or bring together
    John mustered the last of his strength and screamed out at the top of his lungs.
  12. muffled
    being or made softer or less loud or clear
    Her voice was muffled by the wind.
  13. clamp
    fasten with or as with a device that holds things tightly
    And then a hand clamped onto his arm.
  14. stutter
    speak haltingly
    “I thought you were lost!” John stuttered through his chattering teeth.
  15. brutal
    harsh
    Myra’s father flung open the door, and they faced the brutal cold.
  16. hitch
    connect to a vehicle
    Each was a simple wooden wagon mounted on metal sled rails, and hitched to a single horse.
  17. harsh
    severe
    John felt so sorry for those horses. Their fur wasn’t much protection in cold this harsh.
  18. rein
    one of a pair of long straps used to control a horse
    Mr. Lowry was about to snap the reins to get their horse moving.
  19. corpse
    the dead body of a human being
    If Miss Ruell hadn’t come to rescue him, he’d be a frozen corpse by now, buried in the snow.
  20. batter
    strike violently and repeatedly
    On and on they went. Battered by the maniac wind. Lashed by the ground-glass ice. Falling down. Standing up. Falling down.
  21. savage
    marked by extreme and violent energy
    And then came a savage gust. An ice-packed whirl so furious it knocked them all down at once.
  22. lunge
    make a thrusting forward movement
    They all lunged forward, crawling desperately through the snowdrifts.
  23. flutter
    move back and forth very rapidly
    His eyes fluttered.
    Don’t sleep! Don’t sleep!
  24. raspy
    unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound
    “King Rattler could attack from any direction,” Rex reminded them, his voice strong but still raspy from months of coughing.
  25. pneumonia
    a serious illness of the lungs that makes it difficult to breathe
    He’d caught a bad case of pneumonia after the blizzard, and looked too skinny and frail.
  26. frail
    physically weak
    He’d caught a bad case of pneumonia after the blizzard, and looked too skinny and frail.
  27. swell
    expand abnormally
    His feet had swelled up like balloons.
  28. bolt
    run away
    Mr. Lowry came, and told them what happened to him after the horse bolted with the sled.
  29. stump
    cause to be perplexed or confounded
    “What should we get her for a present?” Sven asked.
    They were stumped.
  30. rustling
    characterized by soft sounds
    And then there was a rustling sound in the bushes.
  31. hail
    precipitation of ice pellets
    John thought nervously about what the spring and summer could bring.
    Thunderstorms. Hail. Prairie fires. Funnel clouds. Grasshoppers.
  32. desperate
    arising from or marked by anguish or loss of hope
    That storm had terrified his parents. They’d been so desperate to find John and Franny that Pa had gone out into the storm.
  33. steady
    support and make steadfast
    He steadied himself.
    King Rattler didn’t move.
  34. graze
    feed as in a meadow or pasture
    Shadow and Princess grazed on tender green sprouts.
  35. tender
    young and immature
    Shadow and Princess grazed on tender green sprouts.
Created on Tue Oct 24 18:20:07 EDT 2023 (updated Wed Nov 01 12:51:43 EDT 2023)

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