The childrens blizzard is a historical novel that deals with a real time in history known as the schoolhouse blizzard due to the number of children that perish during this tragic storm the time is january 12 1888 and the blizzard covers the eastern united states and canada. Exhaustively researched extensively detailed yet eminently readable the childrens blizzard by david laskin relates the heartrending frightening story of the vicious blizzard of january 12 1888 across americas midwestern prairie some of the narrative gets lost in the details but then this must have been a very hard tale too tell its not exactly an easy one to read either. In the childrens blizzard david laskin explores the january 12 1888 childrens blizzard which devastated an area of the united states then known as the dakota territory it came to be known by this unfortunate name because of the high number of its youthful victims