OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hesse, Karen. 1997. Out of the Dust. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0590371258

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Fourteen year old Billie Joe has a passion for piano during the Great Depression. When she and her father are both partly responsible for a horrible accident that kills her mother and unborn baby brother and severely burns her hands, Billie Joe has to come to terms with her trying life circumstances. As she struggles against the physical and emotional pain inflicted by her loss along with the hardships of the Oklahoma dust bowl, she gradually learns to forgive and move on.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This is a moving story about the strength of the human spirit. Told in the first person and chronologically much like a journal, it is a very emotional account of personal hardship in very uncertain times. The use of free verse succinctly and powerfully conveys the feelings and impressions inherent in these struggles. While the voice and style is that of a simple Oklahoma farm girl, the wisdom imparted is far more sophisticated. The backdrop of the Great Depression and Oklahoma dust bowl is carefully crafted into the heroine’s personal tension with her father and, ultimately, with herself. Hesse manages to make the two year spiritual journey accessible and believable.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
From Publisher’s Weekly (starred review): “This intimate novel, written in stanza form, poetically conveys the heat, dust and wind of Oklahoma. With each meticulously arranged entry Hesse paints a vivid picture of her heroine's emotions."

From School Library Journal: “A triumphant story, eloquently told through prose-poetry.”

5. CONNECTIONS
*Write a free verse journal
*Read other books by Karen Hesse:
The Music of Dolphins ISBN 0192719602
A Time of Angels ISBN 0786806214
Phoenix Rising ISBN 0140376283
*Read other books about the Oklahoma dust bowl
Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp ISBN 0517880946
Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930s ISBN 0618154493