Trapped

Do you think spending the night in your high school with about seven friends might be fun? Initially, Jason, Pete, and Scotty think it might be until the blizzard becomes so intense, it is obvious that they won’t be rescued for days—perhaps even a week. Another trapped student, Elijah James, is the only one to vocalize that perhaps they might all die in their high school.

Trapped by Michael Northrop is realistic fiction at its best. When a blizzard hits New England, most students take the buses when the school system decides to release students early at 1 p.m. due to the rapid accumulation of snow. Others are waiting for their parents to pick them up. Little do they know that the roads are impassible; no one will be picking them up any time soon.

Coach Gossell agrees to stay with them until their rides come. When he realizes that they aren’t going to be rescued, he sets out on foot to try to get help. Quickly enough, the seven students are aware that communication has all but stopped. The coach never returns. Their cell phones don’t work. The lines must be down for the school’s landlines. As they begin to feel the full impact of their predicament, they know they must band together to secure food from the cafeteria, to navigate the school once the electricity goes out, to figure out how to melt snow for water once all the pipes freeze, and how to stay sane in the face of the greatest blizzard they have ever experienced. Additionally, they are all concerned about how their families are managing through this ordeal.

The story is told from Scotty Weems perspective. He and his best friends, Jason and Pete feel a bit threatened by Les, another student stranded with them. None of them know what to make of Elijah who seems more suited to being a goth. They think he is just plain weird. Julie and Krista are girls they don’t usually associate with, but now that they are thrown together how will that change their friendship?

Read this story to find out what it is like to be without all the conveniences that we expect in our world. Try to understand what could happen to us all if a blizzard of this magnitude did hover over New England for seven days.