Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Hesse, Karen. 1997. OUT OF THE DUST. New York: Scholastic Books ISBN 0590371258

Like most free verse poetry, Out of the Dust has no distinct rhythm and no rhyme. However, beginning with the first page and carrying through it is full of imagery and emotion. There are no pictures to illustrate or enhance the story. Everything is in the words, alone.
As summer wheat came ripe, so did I,…barefoot, bare bottomed
It is easy to see Billie Jo’s mother giving birth, at home without a doctor present. Billie Jo is described in few words, but it is easy to form a picture of her in the mind. This story progresses from 1929 to 1934 in the space of just two and a half pages. Then we begin an odyssey through time to the American dust bowl. Hesse allows us to see the storms coming, feel the wind burn as it whips across the open bare fields, striking against the soft cheek brutally, and taste the constant month upon month of teeth crunching grit of the wind driven dust. These storms are both physical and emotional. Then, every so often, she allows us to experience a moment of hope, in words so real that one can almost feel the juice of apples dripping down the chin (p.45)
Tragedy is shown in clear language. No attempt at gratuitous shock is made. The glimpses of pain and devastation, leading to death, are brief, intended only to show the extent of the devastation. It ends, not with the end of the dust bowl era, but with the character’s epiphany about herself and her place in the world.

From Publishers WeeklyIn a starred review of the 1998 Newbery Medal winner, set during the Depression, PW said, "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." Ages 11-13. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. From School Library JournalGrade 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. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsBillie Jo tells of her life in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl: Her mother dies after a gruesome accident caused by her father's leaving a bucket of kerosene near the stove; Billie Jo is partially responsible--fully responsible in the eyes of the community--and sustains injuries that seem to bring to a halt her dreams of playing the piano. Finding a way through her grief is not made easier by her taciturn father, who went on a drinking binge while Billie Joe's mother, not yet dead, begged for water. Told in free-verse poetry of dated entries that span the winter of 1934 to the winter of 1935, this is an unremittingly bleak portrait of one corner of Depression-era life. In Billie Jo, the only character who comes to life, Hesse (The Music of Dolphins, 1996, etc.) presents a hale and determined heroine who confronts unrelenting misery and begins to transcend it. The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope; there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality. (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This is an excellent book to begin an across the curriculum study of the Great Depression. Most textbooks discuss the depression in dry facts. Many people relate the Great Depression cause by the economic collapse of Wall Street in 1929. They learn a modicum of Roosevelt’s ABC plan for recovery. But little is studied about the day to day survival, or the over farming of land in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas that devastated the fields, reducing them dust. For science, look into the causes of the dust bowl. What steps were recommended and taken to encourage recovery of the farm land. For social studies, look at various areas of the country to see what problems were paramount in each area. Contact and invite elderly people in your community to describe their experiences. Many elderly people have stated that they were already so poor they barely noticed a difference. For literature, read other stories about the dust bowl. Katelan Jenke wrote Survival in the Storm and Texas dust bowl story written in diary form. An author/poet study shows that Jenke was 15 years old when she wrote Survival in the Storm.