OUT OF THE DUST

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Hesse, Karen.1997. OUT OF THE DUST. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN: 0590371258

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
OUT OF THE DUST is an outstanding story about a young girl named, Billie Jo, who experiences living through the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Fighting against the elements on her Oklahoma farm, Billie Jo takes on even more responsibilities when her mother dies in a tragic accident. Her valiant struggle to help her family cope during these extremely lean years makes OUT OF THE DUST a wonderful tale of strength and courage.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
Written in poetry form, Karen Hesse's lyrical poetry brings readers deep into the trials and tribulations that a young girl deals with. Set in Oklahoma's Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, the story exposes the raw emotions of a young girl as she struggles to survive the most haunting experience of her life. This story is told through the eyes of Billie Jo which will allow young readers to understand the complexity of life for children their own age and also be able to make a connection between the issues of the time and the ones they are dealing with today. This beautifully written book is an excellent introduction to the Great Depression. This great poem cycle reads as a novel, which is an instant classic.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
School Library Journal
Gr 5 Up--After facing loss after loss during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, Billie Jo begins to reconstruct her life. A triumphant story, eloquently told through prose-poetry.

Publishers Weekly
This intimate novel, written in stanza form, poetically conveys the heat, dust and wind of Oklahoma along with the discontent of narrator Billy Jo, a talented pianist growing up during the Depression. Unlike her father, who refuses to abandon his failing farm ("He and the land have a hold on each other"), Billy Jo is eager to "walk my way West/ and make myself to home in that distant place/ of green vines and promise." She wants to become a professional musician and travel across the country. But those dreams end with a tragic fire that takes her mother's life and reduces her own hands to useless, "swollen lumps." Hesse's (The Music of Dolphins) spare prose adroitly traces Billy Jo's journey in and out of darkness. Hesse organizes the book like entries in a diary, chronologically by season. With each meticulously arranged entry she paints a vivid picture of Billy Jo's emotions, ranging from desolation ("I look at Joe and know our future is drying up/ and blowing away with the dust") to longing ("I have a hunger,/ for more than food./ I have a hunger/ bigger than Joyce City") to hope (the farmers, surveying their fields,/ nod their heads as/ the frail stalks revive,/ everyone, everything, grateful for this moment,/ free of the/ weight of dust"). Readers may find their own feelings swaying in beat with the heroine's shifting moods as she approaches her coming-of-age and a state of self-acceptance. Ages 11-13.

Booklist
Gr. 6-9. "Daddy came in, / he sat across from Ma and blew his nose. / Mud streamed out. / He coughed and spit out / mud. / If he had cried, / his tears would have been mud too, / but he didn't cry. / And neither did Ma." This is life in the Oklahoma dust bowl in the mid-1930s. Billie Jo and her parents barely eke out a living from the land, as her father refuses to plant anything but wheat, and the winds and dust destroy the crop time after time. Playing the piano provides some solace, but there is no comfort to be had once Billie Jo's pregnant mother mistakes a bucket of kerosene for a bucket of water and dies, leaving a husband who withdraws even further and an adolescent daughter with terribly burned hands. The story is bleak, but Hesse's writing transcends the gloom and transforms it into a powerfully compelling tale of a girl with enormous strength, courage, and love. The entire novel is written in very readable blank verse, a superb choice for bringing out the exquisite agony and delight to be found in such a difficult period lived by such a vibrant character. It also spares the reader the trouble of wading through pages of distressing text, distilling all the experiences into brief, acutely observed phrases. This is an excellent book for discussion, and many of the poems stand alone sufficiently to be used as powerful supplements to a history lesson. (Reviewed October 1, 1997)Susan Dove Lempke.

5. CONNECTIONS:
*Coombs, Karen Mueller. (2000). Children of the Dust Days. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books. ISDN: 1575053608
*Stein, R. Conrad. (1994). The Great Depression. New York: Scholastic. ISDN: 9780516466682
*Hesse, Karen. (1999). Come On, Rain! New York: Scholastic. 32pp. Illustrated by Jon J. Muth. ISDN: 9780590331258
*The students will be able to write about their own experience relating to the text.
*The students to create a mural relating to the text.