Blizzard's Wake

From Publishers Weekly
In this taut novel set in 1941 North Dakota, Naylor (Shiloh; the Alice books) brings together a number of freak occurrences-and joins them so skillfully that her story pulses with drama. Separate narrative strands introduce Kate Sterling, a teenager still mourning the death of her mother, Ann, four years earlier, and Zeke Dexter, the drunk driver who killed Ann Sterling and who has just been released from prison a year early, for good behavior. Naylor creates a highly charged atmosphere right from the beginning, as Kate feigns an interest in high school life while secretly consumed with hatred for Zeke. When an unusually severe blizzard strikes (the storm is historical), Kate, alone at home and realizing that her father, a country doctor, and younger brother are stranded just yards away in an unheated car, resourcefully plans a rescue. Meanwhile, Zeke, lost in the blinding snowfall, has stumbled, frost-bitten, into the Sterlings' car and is being tended by Doc Sterling. Kate, who has long fantasized about making Zeke suffer, is shocked. Naylor doesn't shy away from Kate's darkest feelings (assisting her father in a makeshift operation, for example, Kate administers Zeke's ether and must resist her urge to give him too much-or too little). As unlikely as the plot sounds, the believability of the characters and the complexity of their emotions give the novel psychological truth and strong resonance to its protagonists' slow movement toward forgiveness. Ages 12-up. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-Another winner from Naylor. After four years, Kate Sterling, 15, is still mourning her mother's accidental death caused by Zeke Dexter's drunk driving. She is so inconsolable that she becomes increasingly withdrawn and isolates herself from her peers. Chapters alternate between Kate's and Zeke's voices. As he returns to town after serving his prison sentence, a deadly snowstorm is approaching; simultaneously, Kate's father and brother are returning from visiting one of her dad's patients. They become stranded in the car, and she is able to rescue them before they freeze to death. Unknown to her, she is also saving Zeke, the person she hates most. The succeeding events detail her courage in dealing with her grief and with the presence of the man who killed her mother as he is given refuge in her home. The story takes place in a small, North Dakota town during the famous blizzard of March, 1941. Naylor uses dramatic but accurate details to describe the fury of the storm as well as the prewar period, thus enriching the sense of time and place. An exciting survival story interwoven with one individual's personal struggle to overcome hatred and learn to forgive.Susan Cooley, formerly at Tower Hill School, Wilmington, DECopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gr. 7-12. After serving four years in prison for accidentally killing 15-year-old Kate Sterling's mother, Zeke Dexter is released. That same day, a blizzard descends on Grand Forks, trapping Zeke outside and Kate's father and brother in a car a mile from home. Zeke stumbles upon the car and the Sterlings take him in. Luckily Kate finds them and leads everyone to the house. It's then that she must confront her hatred for Zeke, whom she has sworn to kill. Will she act on her anger or find it in her heart to forgive him? Kate's hatred is convincingly depicted, but the story isn't entirely credible: Kate's father, a model of human compassion, is certainly too good to be true; the stranded car seems to be a bottomless pit of materials to keep the passengers warm; and the ultimate resolution comes too easily after the buildup of emotions. Despite the problems, though, there's still plenty of tension and suspense in the story, which illuminates the struggle to forgive the unforgivable. Naylor's fans will want this. Ed Sullivan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
School Library Journal Another winner from Naylor...an exciting survival story.

Voice of Youth Advocates 5Q 4P review With the reverberating theme of death and forgiveness, Naylor's powerful novel is quite memorable.

ANNOTATION

In March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Kate Sterling has lost four years of her life to grief and anger. Zeke Dexter has lost four years of his life as well -- in jail for the accident that killed Kate's mother. Just out of prison, Zeke wants to put the past behind him, but a freak blizzard makes him a prisoner once again -- he of Kate, and Kate of him.

Kate fears she will never be able to overcome the anger that has consumed her since her mother's death. But is Zeke the only one Kate needs to forgive?

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this taut novel set in 1941 North Dakota, Naylor (Shiloh; the Alice books) brings together a number of freak occurrences-and joins them so skillfully that her story pulses with drama. Separate narrative strands introduce Kate Sterling, a teenager still mourning the death of her mother, Ann, four years earlier, and Zeke Dexter, the drunk driver who killed Ann Sterling and who has just been released from prison a year early, for good behavior. Naylor creates a highly charged atmosphere right from the beginning, as Kate feigns an interest in high school life while secretly consumed with hatred for Zeke. When an unusually severe blizzard strikes (the storm is historical), Kate, alone at home and realizing that her father, a country doctor, and younger brother are stranded just yards away in an unheated car, resourcefully plans a rescue. Meanwhile, Zeke, lost in the blinding snowfall, has stumbled, frost-bitten, into the Sterlings' car and is being tended by Doc Sterling. Kate, who has long fantasized about making Zeke suffer, is shocked. Naylor doesn't shy away from Kate's darkest feelings (assisting her father in a makeshift operation, for example, Kate administers Zeke's ether and must resist her urge to give him too much-or too little). As unlikely as the plot sounds, the believability of the characters and the complexity of their emotions give the novel psychological truth and strong resonance to its protagonists' slow movement toward forgiveness. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT - Michele Winship

To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, November 2002: Fifteen-year-old Kate Sterling lives outside of Grand Forks, North Dakota, in March 1941. Across the ocean the world is warring, in the unseasonably warm air a blizzard is lurking, and in Kate's heart the hatred she feels toward the drunk driver who took her mother's life is boiling. Meanwhile, the driver, Zeke Dexter, has just completed his prison term and is coming back home to the only family he has left. In alternating chapters, Naylor brings these two characters closer and closer until, in an ironic twist of fate, they are trapped with Kate's father and brother by the Red River Valley Blizzard of '41, which almost kills them all. Naylor's description allows the reader to experience the blizzard's suffocating white power. While they wait for the plows to reach their rural home, Kate struggles to control her violent feelings toward Zeke in the face of his remorse and her father's compassion for him. Even her younger brother moves beyond his own pain to befriend the man who has killed his mother. When injury confines Zeke to her home even longer, Kate comes to realize she is destroying herself through her hatred, and that only forgiveness will begin her healing process. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2002, Simon & Schuster, Pulse, 231p., Ages 12 to 18.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Another winner from Naylor. After four years, Kate Sterling, 15, is still mourning her mother's accidental death caused by Zeke Dexter's drunk driving. She is so inconsolable that she becomes increasingly withdrawn and isolates herself from her peers. Chapters alternate between Kate's and Zeke's voices. As he returns to town after serving his prison sentence, a deadly snowstorm is approaching; simultaneously, Kate's father and brother are returning from visiting one of her dad's patients. They become stranded in the car, and she is able to rescue them before they freeze to death. Unknown to her, she is also saving Zeke, the person she hates most. The succeeding events detail her courage in dealing with her grief and with the presence of the man who killed her mother as he is given refuge in her home. The story takes place in a small, North Dakota town during the famous blizzard of March, 1941. Naylor uses dramatic but accurate details to describe the fury of the storm as well as the prewar period, thus enriching the sense of time and place. An exciting survival story interwoven with one individual's personal struggle to overcome hatred and learn to forgive.-Susan Cooley, formerly at Tower Hill School, Wilmington, DE

Kirkus Reviews