OUT OF THE DUST By: Karen Hesse

Bibliography
Hesse, Karen. 1997. OUT OF THE DUST. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0590360809.

Plot Summary
Billie Jo is a teenage girl growing up in Oklahoma during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Her family is having to endure the hardships of dust storms, grasshoppers, no rain, no crops, and no money. When an accident fatally injures Billie Jo's pregnant mother and her piano playing hands, she is left to be raised by her father. Feeling alone and wanting to escape the dust, she decides to run away, but quickly realizes that she wants to go home. By the end of the book Billie Jo has forgiven her father and begins to enjoy life again.

Critical Analysis
OUT OF THE DUST uses a collection of free-verse poems to journal two years of a teenage girl's life in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Hesse has date stamped each poem to show Billie Jo's progression and feelings over time. Her careful choice of language provides colorful imagery. For example, on page 163, Hesse writes,
We watched as the storm swallowed the light.
The sky turned from blue
to black,
night descended in an instant
and the dust was on us.
This brief description is so vivid that the reader is able to imagine how this wall of dust made daylight seem like night in an instant.

Hesse also brings emotion into her work through her vivid descriptions of Billie Jo's feelings toward her father, the dust, and her piano playing. Many readers will be able to identify with her feelings throughout the book and would be of particular interest to pre-teen and teen girls.

Finally, the author added a large amount of historical information to her work. She gives facts about crops, dust storms, masks, wet cloths, dusty food, no rain, President Roosevelt, the movement of migrant workers to California, and much more. This historical information is integrated in a way that is not overpowering but does provide a basic understanding about this period of time.

Overall, Karen Hesse has written a powerful novel about a young girl and her struggles during a trying time in American History. Hesse's language provides vivid imagery and understandable emotion that can be enjoyed by teens and adults alike.

Review Excerpts
starred review in BOOKLIST: "A powerfully compelling tale of a girl with enormous strength, courage, and love."
starred review in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: "Readers may find their own feelings swaying in beat with the heroine's shifting moods."
starred review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "A triumphant story, eloquently told through prose-poetry."

Connections
*This book can be used in conjunction with teaching free-verse style in poetry. Have students write in a journal and use their daily writings to create free-verse style poems.
*Compare/contrast Billie Jo with other characters from literature set during the Great Depression

• Taylor, Mildred D. ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY. ISBN 0140348934.
• Tripp, Valerie. MEET KIT, AN AMERICAN GIRL, 1934. ISBN 1584850167.
• Durbin, William. THE JOURNAL OF C.J. JACKSON, A DUST BOWL MIGRANT, OKLAHOMA TO CALIFORNIA, 1935. ISBN 0439153069.

*Compile books about the history of the Great Depression to read in conjunction with this book.
*Integrate this book into the curriculum of other subjects (ie Music-listen and study to depression era music, Social Studies/Science- shows the effects of not using crop rotation and how that changes the geography and affects the weather, English-free-verse poetry, etc.).