Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Assignment: #8 of ten narratives
Author: Karen Hesse
Publisher: New York : Scholastic Press, 1997. 227 p.
Date: 03/07/07
Format/Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended Grade Levels: 6th grade to adulthood
Awards: Newberry Award winnner 1998
Jefferson Cup Award Honor Book 1998
Summary: Fourteen year-old, Billie Jo is a girl who is learning to live without her mother. Her father caused the accident that took the life of her mother. Billie Jo and her father are learning to cope without her mother. Billie Jo is trying to forget her sorrows. The book is written in diary form. Billie also relates her feeling through her poetry. The book is set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.
Comments: This book is one of my favorites. It was my first exposure to Karen Hesse and her writing style. I personally enjoyed reading in her short verse journal style. The books itself is appealing due to it mixing history into a young girls story. When I student taught I did a literature unit on the book. The reluctant readers even enjoyed the book. Karen Hesse uses quite a bit of history about the Dust Bowl in the reading. The analogies to death, dust and stone all come back to the perfect setting, Dust Bowl.
Booktalking Ideas: I constructed a webquest for students about the Dust Bowl and the era in which the story took place.
VOYA: 4Q 5P