Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
I read Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, the 1998 Newbery Award winner, in my ongoing project to read all of the Newbery books.
Set in the 1930’s during the great depression in the dust bowl of Oklahoma, Out of the Dust is told as a diary in free verse form, a style of writing that I love more with every book I read. Billie Jo is fourteen and loves to both write and play the piano. She’s also eagerly anticipating the birth of her baby brother.
But that all changes when an accident leaves her hands wounded and her mother and brother die in childbirth. Billie Jo’s father is emotionally unreachable:
I don’t know my father anymore.
He sits across from me,
he looks like my father,
he chews his food like my father,
he brushes his dusty hair back like my father,
but he is a stranger.I am awkward with him,
and irritated,
and I want to be alone
but I am terrified of being alone.
We are both changing,
we are shifting to fill in the empty spaces left by Ma.
I keep my raw and stinging hands
behind my back when he comes near
because he
stares
when he seems them.September 1934.
Dust is just as much of this story as anything else. It’s everywhere and non-relenting. It makes for a bleak and harsh environment. Billie Jo wants to escape it all but when she does she comes to realize that the landscape is more a part of her than she realized.
Out of the Dust is a great historical fiction novel for young readers and I loved the free verse. Recommended.
Genre: Historical fiction, ages 9-12.
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks. October 1, 1997
Paperback, 240 pages. ISBN: 0590371258
Out of the Dust is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
Hey you! Yes. You! I've noticed that you've stopped by to visit a few times! But I don't know who you are. Why don't you take a moment and introduce yourself. Don't be scared. I try not to bite. I know you're a lurker but I'd love to hear your thoughts about what's been bringing you here. And if you haven't done so already, don't forget to never miss a post by subscribing to my feed or receiving updates by email. Thanks for visiting!
Category: Book Reviews, Fiction, Middle Readers
Tags: banned, E-H Author, historical fiction, M-P Title, Newbery
Enjoy this post? Then subscribe to receive updates in your favorite reader or by email.
This one was just a little too bleak for me.
on June 30th, 2009 at 9:07 amI read this during the 48 HRC and was so taken by it (http://www.rascofromrif.org/?p=2288), still not sure how I had missed it all these years. Last weekend I read another verse novel TROPICAL SECRETS by Margarita Engle (http://www.rascofromrif.org/?p=2712) and sure learned a great deal about the holocaust survivors in Cuba through the eyes primarily of the children about which Engle wrote…the verse method was quite effective here as well.
on June 30th, 2009 at 9:33 amI was really glad I picked this one up – really, what took me so long? Beautifully written (even though in general I don’t like books written in poetry).
on June 30th, 2009 at 9:35 amThis sounds like an interesting read. I’ve not read many different books written in prose, but this one sounds good.
on June 30th, 2009 at 5:39 pmSounds very challenging, but interesting. Thanks for recommending.
on June 30th, 2009 at 8:37 pmI haven’t read this one by Hesse, but Witness is one of my all time favorite books. Have you read that one?
on July 1st, 2009 at 6:28 amI enjoyed this too. I found the free verse so effective; it really forced me to see things through Billie Joe’s eyes.
on July 1st, 2009 at 11:15 amI read this book during, while student teaching history. My Mentor teacher would read it to his AP classes so they would get an idea of what the dust storms during this era were really like. At the time it was a national crisis made worse by bad farming practices. I usually find western U.S. history boring but this book really made this era intersting to me.
on July 1st, 2009 at 7:06 pmI read this for my YA lit class. Its the first book I’ve read in free verse form. Its definitely different reading a whole story in this format. I took it as more of a diary than poems. The author did a marvelous job in relaying historical aspect of the timeperiod. I’d never read much about the Dust Bowl and Hesse describes it very clearly. I think children would get a good sense of the conditions by reading this book.
on July 1st, 2009 at 7:07 pmI had this one in my hands the other day at the bookstore and I almost bought it. I was SO close. It’s good to hear your thoughts on it. This is one I would like to read with my daughter. I think she would love it!
on July 1st, 2009 at 10:05 pmAnother one to add to my must read. My husbands grandmother escaped from the dust bowl, so it will be a good one to read to my husband!
on July 1st, 2009 at 10:31 pmI have this on my shelf, been meaning to read it. The verse thing kind of puts me off- I’m not really into poetry- but everyone keeps saying it’s such a great book, I’m willing to give it a try.
on July 4th, 2009 at 7:07 amI found you through a google search for a twitter tutorial. I’m glad I did not only for the article, but for this great blog. I love Newberry Books.
on July 10th, 2009 at 5:47 pmI really like your project of reading all the Newberry Award winners. I will read Lois Lowry’s 1989 winner “Number the Stars” very soon
on July 19th, 2009 at 8:49 pm