Book Review: Whiter Than Snow

I enjoy reading, but few books touch me. With most books, I visualize everything and can see the characters - but Sandra Dallas has a unique way of enveloping me into her stories. Something very few authors are able to do when I read their works.

Whiter Than Snow is Dallas' ninth novel. I have read six of them. I have enjoyed each one, but none of them got into my head quite as much as this one. The book is set in a mining town in the Colorado Rockies (a Denverite, Dallas' novels are mostly set in the Midwest to Western states) in 1920. There is an avalanche, just after the school bell rings and nine children are buried under a massive amount of snow. Only four survive.

The book takes you through the history of parents and grandparents who are frantically hoping their children are found alive, and the aftermath of what happens to each family after the children are recovered.

In reading the words, I not only was able to visualize the settings, but I felt the cold of the mothers digging for their children with dishpans, I read more than a few pages through tears (of both happiness over the finding of survivors and sorrow of finding bodies) as none of the children were older than my middle child.

I don't think you have to be a parent to appreciate this book, as Dallas' themes of forgiveness, redemption, survival, faith and family are things everyone can relate to. It shows the human spirit in a familiar theme - how differences are set aside to help everyone affected - regardless of economic status, color or creed. In the end, the town is stronger in spite of the tragedy - and characters you wouldn't think would could ever become friends do. If you couldn't already tell, I give this book an A+. Find a copy today, you won't be sorry that you did.