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

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring Tear Jerker
Review: Out of the dust is simply a great book. Fourteen-year-old Billy Joe tells of her experiences during a huge drought. She strives to reach her goals, and never gives up. Along the way she encounters many complications, but still never gives up. She goes through all of this after watching the tragic death of her mother.
I especially like this book because it always goes very deep into detail. The details really made me feel like I was a part of the story, like I could actually taste the dust as she described it.
So, in conclusion, I highly recommend this book. Sure, it's a tearjerker, but it is also an extremely inspiring novel. Happy Reading!!!

Rating:
Summary: Out of the Dust Touches College Students
Review: I am a Junior at Brigham Young University-Idaho studying to be a High School English Teacher. In my Young Adult Literature class, We were assigned to read this great book. At first, I was not excited at all about reading it. But once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I read it from cover to cover right in the middle of the Library! This Newbery Medal book really gives true insight into what the Dust Bowl was really like as well as the economic state of the country. When I teach this book in my classes, (because I definatly will)I will have the opportunity to teach many diffrent topics and morals along with it. For instance, I can teach US History, Personal Accounts, First Person Writting, as well as counting your blessings and touching on trials in our lives and how to deal with them. I laughed, I cried, I mourned, and I rejoiced with Billie Jo as she grew up and I highly recomend and invite ALL ages to do the same!

Rating:
Summary: Nice to meet Billie Jo
Review: We really liked the book. It was nice to read, although it was a little long. It was interessting to "meet Bilie Jo" and to hear about her life, her family, her feelings and hopes.
What we liked especially about the style of writing was the poetry, it was new for us, but we really enjoyed reading it.
We can recommend this book , we think it is a good experience for everyone!

Rating:
Summary: Great book!! Must read!
Review: Out of the dust is a heart warming story! I loved it and I hope you will too! Billy Jo is just about my age and I could relate to the story. I had to read a newbery honor book for a report and I read this book and it worked perfect! Read this book and you will love it!

Rating:
Summary: What a grate book
Review: Out Of the Dust
By, Karen Hesse
Review by, Samantha

As the dust gets thicker Billy Jo tells the story of the life in Oklahoma, While the time of the dust bowl. The genre of OUT OF THE DUST is realistic fiction, made to sound very real by Karen Hesse. Billy Jo her mother and her father all live in a small shack on a farm. Because of the dust the crops were not growing well, they had also not had a heavy rain in over a year. Billy Jo loved the piano and she always played it but after a terrible accident that left her hands and her mother totally burned up and sore she thought that she could never play again.

I think that this is a good book for young adults because they might be able to connect in some ways. I personally loved the book and had a really hard time putting it down. I think the reason I liked it so much was that it was something that could really happen. I also liked this book a lot because she made you feel like you were right there watching the story. The Plot of the book was announced really well and the characters descriptions were made very clear and easy to understand.

The plot of this book is very good. Because they start out by telling us were the book takes place and who the characters in the story are. They made the book very understandable and readable. The story was telling us about what a 14-year old Girls named Billy JO's life in the years of a drought in Oklahoma. She was saying her parents did not really want her because they wanted a son. While towards the middle of the book the mother of Billy Jo gets pregnant and is going to have a baby boy. But then an accident burns her whole body while she is pregnant.

The characters in the book are very descriptive. The main character in the book Billy Jo is described as a tall not so pretty girl with dirty blonde hair. Very dirty skin from the water she bathes in. The mother is tall skinny and when she is pregnant she is described as a normal women only weighing in at 110lbs. The father has some muscles but not many mostly he is skin and bones with also very dirty skin. The other people in the book don't really have descriptions except for one boy not giving a name, he is decried as a short boy with freckles and blonde hair they say he has blue eyes and kind of a pudgy face.

This book is about A girl in Oklahoma that is having a hard time living. The people that live there are desperately wanting rain that they have not had for over three years. It is so hard to live because the farms will not grow and the food and water is saturated in dust.

I think I personally connected with this book when Billy JO's mother passed away because just last year my father passed away. In addition, when her father got a girlfriend and how she did not like her at first, I was not comfortable with my stepfather at first either. Therefore, I kind of know what Billy JO fells like.

I would recommend this book to any young adult or adult that like reading realistic fiction. If you would like to know how the dust ends up and how Billy JO's mom goes read this book and be surprised.

Rating:
Summary: The Gripping Story of A Child's Emotions
Review: Written in the style of a free-form poem, OUT OF THE DUST provides the heart wrenching story about a young girl who accidentally caused her mothers death, a fact that darkens her path where ever she goes.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving Novel
Review: As one of my 5th grade students said, "This book being written in blank verse gives a lot of this book's emotional impact." I'd have to agree with that statement. Besides being a sad novel with rare happy moments, this is a book with a wealth of mini-lessons for teaching writing. Throughout this book Karen Hesse uses many author's crafts such as repetition, voice, effective use of dialogue, and the overall mood of the book to name a few. This book should be a staple in every 5th and 6th grade classroom.

Rating:
Summary: Shooting High
Review: Reading an award-winner is tricky business. This book won the Newbery Medal in 1998. I have read nearly all of the Newbery winners and my rule of thumb for these (unlike some other, less worthy prizes) is that you can expect to read a very good book. This one is no exception. Of course, not even Newbery winners are all created equal. Some are truly great and some are kind of average. This one falls in the middle of this range--let's call it the "not quite truly great" category.

Let me say first off that I personally found this to be a wonderful book. I think it is interesting and moving. Though not generally a fan of the free verse/prose poem style Hesse uses in this "novel," I found that her words generated an emotional response that straight prose might have lessened. I was also surprised by how detailed this world became for me while reading what is a very sparse book. This shows real talent and stylistic strength.

On the other hand, though I believe strongly that the best books for children and young adults are equally readable by adults, sometimes an author shoots a little high for the primary readership. Hesse's book is wonderful for adults but a little difficult for younger readers. I was able to let myself be carried away by the beauty of this book because I already have a strong sense about the Depression, life on a farm, the Dust Bowl. A child, however, will struggle with this book because, though strong on feeling, it's short on background.

This is not to say that this book is without merit even for younger readers. Its style and emotion are worth a read for anyone, particularly since it is short enough to be read in very little time. In combination with a more historically oriented book or other background on the Depression, a young reader could get even more from this book. Without this, though, many younger readers will struggle with this book.

Rating:
Summary: A little bit scary ..............
Review: A heart breaking story.Billie Jo is a poor girl with a great love of piano . But she could not play it with her wounded hands .............

Rating:
Summary: ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz........... BORING!!!!!
Review: I read this book relly fast but not because i loved it but because I wanted to get it over with. Almost nothing exciting ever happens it's like life in boringsvill!!!!!!!!!! There are manny good books out there but I'd have to say this is most defintly not one of them!