POETRY

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


PLOT SUMMARY

OUT OF THE DUST is a novel built with individual poems strung into a personal narrative of a young girl living through the Great Depression.  Billie Jo is fourteen years old in 1934 and lives on a farm in Oklahoma.  Her family barely survives on failed crops brought on by drought and wind and dust.  She loses her mother and baby brother after a kitchen fire and her father withdraws into his own despair.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The circumstances are grim and joyless, but Billie Jo's thoughtful observations are expressed in the abreviated language of blank verse.  Upon her best friend moving away:  "Now Livie's gone west, / out of the dust, / on her way to California, / where the wind takes a rest sometimes."  When the women come to help after her mother died:  "The women talked as they / scrubbed death from our house. / I / stayed in my room / silent on the iron bed, / listening to their voices. / 'Billie Jo threw the pail,' / they said. 'An accident,' / they said. / Under their words a finger pointed."

Vivid images and emotions are created in carefully crafted phrases.  As time passes and internal and external wounds are healing, Billie Jo declares, "The way I see it, hard times aren't only / about money, / or drought, / or dust. / Hard times are about losing spirit, / and hope, / and what happens when dreams dry up." 

This book won the Newbery Medal in 1998.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

Booklist
"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."

Horn Book Magazine
"...expressly depicts both a grim historical era and one family's healing."

CONNECTIONS
*This book would supplement an American history lesson about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930's.
*Other books by Karen Hesse:
WITNESS (2001) ; BROOKLYN BRIDGE (2008)