Midwest Traditions (1997)
Softcover Edition, ISBN 1-883953-19-7
96 pages, 5.5" x 8.5"
Fiction/Juvenile (ages 8-12)
$7.50

Recipient of a Book Award of Merit (1997) from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

In pioneer Wisconsin in 1871, thirteen-year-old Carrie Heidenworth, daughter of a German immigrant family, runs for her life from the raging storm of the great Peshtigo Fire as it races through the countryside to the north of Green Bay.

Separated from her family, with little brother Fritz in tow, Carrie races with others, including Father Pernin, priest of the local Catholic church, to a bridge crossing the Peshtigo River. Suddenly, young Carrie finds herself clinging to the back of a cow swimming in the river, praying that she and Fritz and several friends will survive the night as the firestorm raged overhead.

The Peshtigo Fire occurred on the same night as the Great Chicago Fire (October 8) and was much more deadly, with over 1,000 lives lost. Because it took place in a more remote location than the Chicago blaze, it was not as well known to the public. But the consequences were tragic for the isolated farm families and small Wisconsin towns caught in the fire.

This dramatic story is followed by a sequel novel, Carrie and the Apple Pie, also published by Midwest Traditions.

Nelda Johnson Liebig was born in Oklahoma. She has taught elementary school in Alaska and adults in Russia. She is the author of many children’s short stories including the sequel to this novel, Carrie and the Apple Pie. When she wrote this book, she lived in Oconto (near Peshtigo), but now she lives in the town of Trempealeau in west-central Wisconsin.

Blue Horse Books is an imprint of Midwest Traditions, Inc., a nonprofit publisher whose titles have won the Benjamin Franklin Award and have been short-listed for the Great Lakes Book Award, Minnesota Book Award, Independent Press Book Award, and others.