Literature Guide: Out of the Dust (Grades 4-8)

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Summary: shannon gilliam
Review: we read this book in texas history.I liked it alot it had a pretty sad ending but it gave me a really good glimpes of what happend back then during the great deppresion it wasn't a easy time at all for them, and it seemed that they had alot of trouble with people dieing and them losing people that they loved very much the way that they did.When i looked at the cover i thought it was going to be the most boreing book but it wasnt thats why im glad that they have the qoute,"never judge a book by it's cover."

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Summary: It is an OK book(Tiger10)
Review: It talks about the dust storms and how bad they were. I found it interesting because the dust storms were terible. Though, it talked a little too much about "the sad part". But, overall it was a good book. The story is about one girl named Billy Jo. She lives in the Western part of Oklahoma. She lives with her parents in a a rural area. Since it takes place in the 1930's it is different. The book talks about her life. It is a depressing book.

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Summary: OUT OF THE DUST?
Review: the book was very interesting. karen hesse has a very beautiful way of describing Billi Jo and her love and hunger for the piano because the way she talked about the piano in her diary was the exact same way i think of it. It was also very sad,but when she ran away I didnt get that, the way she describes it. her dad never talks to her until her mom dies. that also remindes me about me and my dad. I dont think it ended well it was very boring the last page but it was still very good different amotions so I it 3 starz.

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Summary: Definately Dusty!
Review: 'Out of the Dust'was a very good book. It did catch me in a lot of places, and when it did, I never stopped reading it!
The ending wasn't surprising, but sometimes that's what you need for a Best Seller.

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Summary: The Dust Bunnies!
Review: Out of the Dust is a sad but interesting book. It tells a story of a girl named Billie-Joe who's living in the dust bowl. The story is told through diary entries. The fact that it is written in diary entries makes it easy to relate to her and understand what she's thinking. You could tell how heart broken she was when her mother and baby brother died. In the begining, Billie-Joe just wants to be out of the dust. But in the end, she realizes that the dust is a part of her now, and she can't just leave her father because he was her family and she couldn't just walk out on him. It had a very poetic ending, but it could have been stronger and had a greater impact on the readers.

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Summary: Out of the Dust by CCP
Review: This is a book about a girl and her family in the Okalahoma Dust Bowl. First some dust storms happen and the dad is just concerned about his crops. Later Billie Jo (the girl) brunt her hands and her mom very sadly died and her little brother Franklin died. Billie Jo was a good piano player and with her hands burnt she couldn't play. Her and her dad don't talk much. Billie Jo runs away on a train and makes it to Arizona and when she is there she calls her dad. They understand each other later. At the very end of the book her dad starts to like this other girl. This is a good book but is hard to understand.

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Summary: Out of the Dust is Pretty Good
Review: I thought Out of the Dust was a pretty good book. I liked everything except for some parts that were depressing. I liked when Billie-Jo met a guy on the train. I also liked when it snowed and everyone got hopeful. This book starts out depressing but ends up hopeful.

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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: I've read some of Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.This book is also about dust storms.Billys mom is gone and the poor things name is Billie Jo because he wanted a boy. The only thing Billie likes to do is play the piano but can't because her hands hurt,why I don't know[I havent read that much].

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Summary: A Sixth Grader's review of the book!
Review: The book I read is called Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. It won the 1998 John Newbery Award. The book is tied on some ways to the Depression Years because it took place then. Depression is a period of low general economic activity marked especially by rising levels of unemployment.
In the years of 1934 and 1935 in the state of Oklahoma, the dust bowl is raging. Bobby Jo, the main character of this book is given this name by her father, because he wanted a boy. Bobby Jo keeps a journel, and writes down the events that happen in a poem form.
Bobby Jo talks about how the Depression and the dust bowl seems to be getting worse. Bobby Jo seems to understand what is going on. A large number of people are losing their jobs, the dust bowl is destroying crops, and there isn't really a lot of money. It is making her family and friends miserable because you have to work really hard just to survive. Bobby Jo lives on a farm covered by dust. Dust storms occur very often in the mid-west. The dust storms are destroying farmer's crops and animals, so people are losing their jobs. There are shortages of food and water causing people to go hungry.
Bobby Jo talks about how she is saddend by people moving away from where she lives. One person was her friend Livie Killian. Bobby Jo's mother is supposed to have a baby, but an accident caused by her father changes all of that. The accident leaves Bobby Jo's hands crippled, and her mother's whole body burned. The mother and the baby die, leaving just Bobby Jo and her father. For the rest of the book, Bobby Jo and her father try to bond with each other and get along, but her father seems to have gone slightly crazy. Bobby Jo starts to worry. Her dad is starting to get spots on his skin. Weird spots. Bobby jo gets so fustrated that she runs away out of the dust.
After meeting a man who also ran away, she decides that she needs to go back to see her father. When she comes home, her dad finds out the spots on his skin were cancer, and so he gets them removed. Bobby Jo meets his dad's new girlfriend , Louise. Louise helps Bobby Jo and her dad solve their problems, and as she does, Bobby Jo relizes that she likes Louise. And in the end, Bobby Jo discovers that something good can come out of something bad.

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Summary: Out Of The Dust
Review: Out of the dust was a book that i read in my language arts class. I found this book very interesting because it was writin in lots of short little free verse poems instead of being writin in prose. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because I thought that it was a pretty interesting book. I would recomend reading this book.