Rating: 
Summary: Out of the dust
Review: When i started reading Out of the Dust I thought it was kind of boring.Once you start to get in the book it gets really good. Karen Hesse the author did really good on showing symbolizem. I liked how they showed the apples meaning life and death. Also how the dad haveing skin cancer thet showed the he was routing away and was getting towards death. I will probley read this book a second time. If i were to rate this book it would be a 6. If you are over 11 years old and you like peotry and some action you should read this book. I think you would like it. Most of my classmates who i read this book with liked it too. I would recomend it to you. So go to the bookstore and but it now.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of the Dust review for Ryan Chopko
Review: The book Out of the Dust, was one of the most interesting and fascinating books I have ever read. Out of the dust was a book that showed the emotion of the people in the Dust Bowl, and in the Great Depression. I thought that it was good to learn about how people felt and lived back then. Also, the book is filled with symbolism of life, death, joy, hate, and much more. A great example of symbolism is that the apple trees and the piano, resembled Ma. The way the author used symbols was excellent, because some objects resembled a person's feelings, or how they act. The symbols also showed the way of life and what was going to happen.
In the book, there were many times of hope. Hope that their family would live, hope to grow food, hope for the rain to come, hope for other people, hope is what kept everyone going. Acceptance was also mentioned many times in this book. The father had to accept the accident, Billie Joe accepted her life and herself, and the family accepted what they had and made the best of things. The people in the book were very giving too. I thought that it was interesting that people who were in the worst of situations, still were giving help, support, and anything that would make the time better.
I highly recommend this great book. I enjoyed reading it together with my class, and discussing each chapter about emotion, symbolism,themes, and important detailed parts of the story. I thought that the book was a great way to show how people lived in the period of time. If you want a fantastic and incredible book to read, I suggest you get this book.
Rating:
Summary: An Enthralling Story with Suspense at all Times
Review: Out of the Dust is an enthralling story that holds you in suspense at all times. Its unique free-verse poem style allows the book to show feelings that words cannot explain. Each poem is written with hidden feelings. This book was brilliantly written by Karen Hesse about a girl's trial of life during the dust bowl. It was a tough trial in which she loses her mother, her brother, and her love, the piano. She has to fight through this devastating trial, and try to move on with her father.This is the most brilliant work of writing you can find about the tough times of the dust bowl. It tells the truth of life out in Oklahoma during the dust bowl, dust and death. It was hard to find something to live for in Oklahoma in the 1940's, but this girl finds a way to make it through the dust bowl. This book is a mix of hope, death, guilt, and truth. This book was written with great compassion.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful and moving novel
Review: I thought Out of the Dust was a mediocre book. It was very sad at some points because Billie Jo's hands got burned in an accident with fire, and she loved to play the piano. However, it was touching when Billie Jo made up with her father after her mother died in the same accident. Billie Jo and her father both felt responsible for the mother's death, because they both played a part in her getting badly burned, which led to her death. To make things worse, the mother was pregnant with a much-wanted son. This book was sometimes very depressing and would not be suitable for light reading.
The free verse poem format was unusual, and stood out from other books. However, I felt that the book could have been much more descriptive if it had been written in paragraph form.
The reason for my rating, three stars, was because this book was sometimes very sad. It also had a bit of a slow start. However, this book had a lot of meaning and seemed very realistic. It was very emotional, and I would recommend this book to older readers.
Rating:
Summary: Out Of The Dust- the best book around!!
Review: This book led you in and out of the dark and light corners of BJ's mind. Out of the Dust showed me the intense times of the Great Depression. The author painted a vivid picture of BJ's emotions in my mind. I was very interested in the range of BJ's emotions. Her feelings ranged from emptiness to wanting and then to trust. This one of the few books I have read that is based on one characters point of view. This left you to wonder what the others views were, which made it more exciting and fun to read. With free-verse the author is able to speak more freely and powerful. This is something I don't see in many books. I enjoy this method. The authors precise descriptions of the Great Depression are presented in a harsh way that shows reality. She also found a way to do this poetically which made it all the more interesting. Her ability to do this was remarkable. While doing this format the author was still able to let her talent shine through the story. The story was gloomy but the author turns the gloom around to represent a girl with enormous power, spunk, and delight. This made me feel like the book was controversial in a good way. She was given a chance to show the distress and admiration in this character. I thought BJ was a wonderful and "constantly fighting with life" sort of person. BJ is a determined hero in my mind. She is brave and strong for confronting misery and hardships. To me it seemed her actions slightly rubbed off on others.... BJ, to me, is a brave soul. She seemed to shine in the hardest of times. She was the best character I have ever read about. She is also determined to win the fight within her soul. She is exactly like the girl I want to be when I grow up. She is living proof to me that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. I would rate this book a 10. I hope this book will teach other kids the same lession I have learned. I hope others will enjoy this wonderful masterpiece by Karen Hesse.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Descriptive Book Ever
Review: I thoutht this book was great. It captured the imaganation with descriptive description. It really described the harsh life. The author made this book really drastic with her description
...
Rating: 
Summary: A Different Perspective
Review: Though most of the review writers of this particular book are young students ages twelve and thirteen, I offer a very different perspective. I'm a nineteen year old college student who may someday want to teach this novel in a classroom. For those interested, here are my thoughts on Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust.
I found it interesting when reading through other reviews from children who have read this book, that many said something to the effect of, "At first it was boring, but then I really liked it." I, on the other hand was immediately swept into its poetic like form with its intriguing opening, "As summer wheat came ripe, so did I, born at home, on the kitchen floor." But I can also understand how a twelve year old might have a difficult time getting into the novel. In comparison to today's world of high speed entertainment, Karen Hesse takes a slower pace as she describes a slower time in history, a harder time. I think it is important for adolescents, especially in today's society, to know what their lives would have been like seventy years ago, in a time very different from the one they know. Hoping that the crops won't fail this year is a stark contrast from hoping for the latest video game. Today's kids seem to be more concerned with continuing action. Hesse's book seems to focus more on emotion. It will take longer for these kids to react to the novel because media has made them somewhat numb to emotion. But it will penetrate, and when it does it will make a longer lasting impression than action ever could.
Many children have lost someone close to them and relate to Billie Jo's loneliness over the loss of her mother. They may have problems communicating what they feel inside. In this book, Hesse becomes the potter, shaping clay emotion into words, through her poetic style. Where adolescents have trouble structuring their emotions into words, Hesse does it for them with passages like, "Such sorrow doesn't come suddenly, there are a thousand steps to take before you get there. But now, sorrow climbs up our front steps, big as Texas, and we didn't even see it coming, even though it'd been making its way straight for us all along." Adolescence is a difficult time, no matter what time it occurs in. So many of its issues are not only universal but timeless. Everyone goes through problems with their parents as they enter teen-age-hood. Billy Jo is no exception. She describes her relationship with her father with the passage entitled, "Empty Spaces: 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."
Karen Hesse's poetic emotion creates not only a touching, but important look at life in the Dust Bowl. But more than that this book provides an outlet for adolescents to deal with their own problems as well.
Rating:
Summary: A depressing and enlightening story all in one!!
Review: If you are going to read Out of the Dust don't be fooled by the slow beginning. The rest of the book is much better. On a scale of 1-10 I would give it a 9 only because it does not have as much action as other books do. There were both depressing parts and enlightening parts. Karen Hesse, the author, wrote Out of the Dust in a new way to me. She wrote it as a poem. The book took place during the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. It is a touching book.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring and Emotional Book
Review: This book is a emotional story about a girl that has a dead mother,a guilty life,and people to forgive.This book is held in the dust bowl.A hot,dry,and a tough place to live in.After she sets fire to her mother with a pail of kerosene,she feels guilty, and her father ignores her.After some other emotional events,she learns that she has to forgive her dad for putting the bucket there,but more importantly, she needs to forgive herself.
This book is an inspiring story of different emotions and tough times.It is all written in patterens and free verse,which show the current emotions.The book has a lot of real-life things,such as skin cancer from the hot whether and death. Soon Billie Jo,the main character,will learn that if one thing goes wrong,there will still be a lot of other good things.
Rating:
Summary: Out Of the Dust
Review: Out of the dust is about a girl Named Billie Joe. It is based in Oklahoma during the dust bowl and the great depression. She makes her life in a small house, living with her father, mother, and soon to come babie brother. Billie Joe's life is realy hard. Right now the dust bowl is going on and evrywhere she goes, on evrything, there is dust. But there is one thing that gets her away from all the bad things in life and that is playing the piano. One day a fatal accident takes place and Billie Joe's life is changed forever. now because of this Billie Joe has no mother and her hands are no longer able to play the piano. This book goes through how Billie Joe goes through life with only a father, no piano, and no money.
I liked this book because the girl, Billie Joe, is about my age and i liked seeing how different peoples lifes were back during the great depression, compaired to myne now. This book was also great because it is cool to get into this persons life and live it along with her. I would definitly recomend this book to young kids like me because you can really relate to this great story.
|
