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Summary: Out of the Dust Review
Review: The book Out of the Dust is a great, thought provoking book. It shows a lot of emotion. It is a sad book. It takes place in the dust bowl during the great depression. Billie Jo, the main character goes through many changes during the book. Billie Jo's family was never perfect, but when her mother dies in an accident Billie Jo and her father are forced to turn to each other for support. Before the accident Billie Jo loved to play the piano. After the accident she couldn't play anymore because she burned her hands. She didn't appreciate her mother much when she was alive but she missed her when she was gone and relized she loved her. I this is one of the best historical fiction books I have ever read. I think this is a really good book for twelve to fifteen year olds and I would recomend it to anyone I know.
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: I think that Out of the Dust was a complex, but interesting novel. There was a lot of conflictions and struggle in the quest for forgivness between Bille Jo and her father.The story is about a girl who lived in the Dust Bowl. Her mother and baby brother die.after being burnt. Billie Jo has to live with her stubborn fater who is just like her. When Billie Jo finally gets fed up, she decides she must run away. Billie Jo must realize her place in the world and learn to accept that, in a book of passion adn forgiveness, wich Billie Jo needs to survive. I enjoyed this book it was symbolic and wonderful at the same time.
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Summary: Out of the dust
Review: Never in my whole 11 years on this Earth have I ever read a book on poems. I always thought poems were supposed to rhyme. I thought poems were boring. When my teacher told me we are reading a book that is all poems I thought, this is going to be a long year. The day we started it, right when I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down. These poems showed extreme sadness and emotion. It shows how good of a life we have and how much they had to suffer. Everything they had was covered in dust. Now days, we have stronger walls with now cracks in them so that dust and rain cant get through. Back then they had cracked walls. No windows, dust and rain got in there houses all of the time. It has much sadness too. Billie Jo's best friend moved to California to try to get out of the dust. Billie Jo's hands represent how she is slowly losing self-confidence as well as her life. She and her father are slowly turning to dust. This book made me think about how fortunate I am to live where I do. I am glad I read this book because it really made me think about how hard life really is out there. It also explained to me much about the dust bowl. I recommend this book for any child to read with their family, school, or just on their own.
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Summary: Out of the Dust Critique
Review: I think the novel "Out of the Dust" is a great, emotional story. It was very touching and I thought that it was neat that Karen Hesse wrote the story in free verse poems. The poems gave me enough information for my imagination to fill in. I could read the story at many levels. It is about a 14- year old girl, named Billie Jo. She suffered terrible dust storms in Kansas, the death of her mother, a non- communicative father, and the burning of her hands. She really liked to play the piano and was the smartest kid in the state. In the beginning of the book, her father worked on the farm, her mother did work around the house, and Billie Jo helped out, played the piano, and went to school. In the middle, a terrible accident happened. The Dad placed a pail of kerosene in the kitchen, and Ma thought it was water. She tried to make coffee using the kerosene. Then the pail caught on fire and Ma ran outside. Billie Jo picked up the bucket to keep the house from burning, and ran outside with it. As soon as she was outside, she threw the pail. Ironically, Ma was running back inside. The burning pail hit Ma and she was engulfed in flames. Billie Jo pushed her down and tried to put out the flames, burning her hands badly. A month later, Ma died, giving birth to a baby, who died shortly after. The tragedy was so horrible that I was drawn to find out how the story would end. Yet, the author didn't overwhelm me with morbid details. Billie Jo and her dad barely talked. It took time for the two to work out their problems. At the end of the book, they met a woman who acted like Ma. She was called Louise. Pa married her and Billie Jo forgave him and vice versa. They overcame the past and moved on in life. I like how Billie Jo gradually developed the problems and gradually solved them. In doing this, the author made everything believable. The whole story improved with the addition of Louise. There was always tension between Ma and Dad. Louise's influence brought calmness to Dad and Billie Jo. She also re-introduced Ma's good ideas to Pa, who finally acted on them.
Louise also helped Billie Jo's confidence and sense of family increase. Through all this, these three characters grew in positive ways.
In summary, the free verse poems, which encouraged my imagination and the gradual positive resolution of Billie Jo's and Dad's problems, left me feeling stronger and more positive about life. This story touches anyone who reads it.
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is too dramatic. It had no happy ending, which most readers love. Karen Hesse wrote details and descriptions very well. I find this very hard to do. However, I personally thought it was too descriptive by using words and phrases like, "a rope of fire bursts into flames, column of fire, beating, and burning pail".
Out Of The Dust is definitely not a children's book and it should only be read by young adults. I read this book with fifteen other young adults and I could tell most of them though some parts were just a little too gory. I could not give it an exact star because it's slow start gave it a "5" the middle was the best with a "10" and at the end it went down to a "6".
Overall, I think the book was fair in a sense that it took Hesse probably a long time to write the book and put a piece of herself in the book, she must feel pain if she gets a bad review. I will do her a favor and give her book 10 stars. I enjoyed the book. Thank you Karen Hesse for writing such a moving book. ATK
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Summary: Thrilling OUT OF THE DUST STORY
Review: Getting out of the dust is what Billy Jo wants to do. Billy Jo is the main character in the book. The books scenereo is in the dust during the depression. There is a terrible accident that kills Billy Jo's mother and her unborn baby brother that dies at about 1 day old. Billy Jo gets her hands burnt and cannot play the piano, the most precious thing to her, and she used to be able to play the piano awesome. If you like a book that is emotional and is full of forgiving and getting over obstacles, this is the book for you. If you do read this book, get ready for a surprise. You can just start looking at the pages and find the surprise in the writing. I am glad I read Out of the Dust and I hope you read the book.
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Summary: Paige's review
Review: For my critique of the book "Out of the Dust" I will rate and tell about how I felt about the book. I enjoyed the book, because it showed just how hard life was back then. I thought that this book was a trip back in history, with all the details of how the really was back then. I enjoyed reading what the main character thought and felt through the book. This book was about a girl about 13 and living during The Great Depression, in Oklahoma with her family. It was so interesting to see her point of view on the problems her and her father must go through. I loved responding back to the book but, I think that the book would have been hard to understand without a teacher. I think it would have been hard because of the symbolism taking place in the book. If I had to rate "Out of the Dust" it would have to be a 7, because some of the parts were hard to understand and sometimes boring. This book was written in free-verse poetry sometimes making it hard to understand and comprehend. I thought it showed the class how hard the times were in the Dust Bowl. I thought that "Out of the Dust" was a good book for class material but hard for kids to understand by themselves.
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Summary: A Story with Truth
Review: "Out of the Dust" was a book that was filled with bad times, like dust. So much truth was told by telling the story of one. By telling the story of one girl, you could see how people used to live.
Billie Jo was a girl covered with bad memories, issues, and dust. The dust was the negative yet positive thing in the book. She assisted in burning herself and her mom. That is a pretty tough situation to be in. The story was told in a poem form. Depending on the mood of the person and the setting, there was a different format. Per say, the format of the poem is a way to express feelings. Some poems were scattered, and some were only a sentence. By one sentence you get another piece of the puzzle that leads you to the end. I learned about some of Americas past, as well as enjoying a great story. The message in the book "Out of the Dust" was to always try to make the best of what you got.
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Summary: Out of the Dust review
Review: The book Out of the Dust is beautifully written in free verse poetry by Karen Hesse. The book is about a young girl who has to go through family problems and her own. This book is extremely sad as she loses her mom and burns her hands. Although it is sad it is an excelent book. Before I read this book I knew nothing about The Great Depression and what the people went through. This book is the only book I have read in free verse poetry. This girl must have been very depressed because she couldn't do the one thing that made her happy and her father would never talk to her. When she runs away she figures out she belongs in The Dust Bowl. When her father starts to speak to his daughter it seems everything goes right.
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Summary: Billie Jo's Struggles
Review: Out of the Dust is about a girl named Billie Jo and her family. Billie Jo and her family live in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. Thousands of people are suffering and dying while Billie Jo and her family try to survive. Billie Jo is put into tough positions and is forced to overcome them. Like when she accidentally pours a burning pail of kerosene on her mom which burns her. The mother eventually dies of dehydration because of the burn. Billie Jo overcomes the accidents in good ways. Like when Billie Jo and her dad wouldn't speak much Billie Jo started talking to him about how she felt, and that patched up the relationship. Out of the Dust is written in free verse. In some poems the style of writing is like how Billie Jo feels. Billie Jo narrates the whole story. The book is very descriptive which makes you feel like you are there. The author does a great job of describing the hard times. One bad part of the book is that the ending is not complete like a happily ever after story, but it pretty much tells what happens. Overall the author did a great job with this story.
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