Out on the South Dakota prairie, the winters are fierce. This storm is the worst one yet: It's below freezing outside, and the winds are howling. All of the other kids have gone home, but Delores's family can't get to her, so she has to stay at the school. Between a fuel shortage and having to boil snow for drinking water, it's been hard for both Delores and her teacher, Miss Martin. Now Delores is very ill. How will Miss Martin get her to the doctor in all this snow? Prairie School was inspired by letters from children at a real South Dakota prairie school, which Lenski then visited during the severe blizzards of the winter of 1950.