The winter of 1880–1881 is called "The Snow Winter", one of the most severe seasons in US history. A succession of blizzards from October through March of the next year kept frontier families secluded; some froze to death. The Chicago and North Western Railway stopped running trains altogether because they were stuck in mounds of snow taller than the trains themselves, leaving whole towns without food and supplies.
The Long Winter, continuing from the previous book, By the Shores of Silver Lake, has the Ingalls family moving to the newly built town, De Smet, in hopes of surviving the winter. Even proximity to other townspeople is little help in blinding, relentless storms. Laura's future husband, Almanzo Wilder, plays a larger role in this chapter, author Wilder intermittently switching the viewpoint away from Laura's narrative in mid-story for the first time in the series.
As the weather is unrelenting, so is the novel's suspense. It's not a joyful read; young readers may find this book too disturbing or depressing. As a slightly modified document of a time and place in history, though, it's fine writing.
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