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Summary: the Way out
Review: " They only said, Billy Jo threw the pail of kerosene."(Heese, 72) This is a quote from the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. It also comes from my favorite poem from the book, called "Blame." There are many reasons why this is my favorite quote. To start off, I can connect to Billy Jo's feelings when people blame her for her mother's death. I don't believe that it was her fault to begin with, but when people accuse you of something without knowing the facts, it angers you but also discourages you. It discourages you and angers you to think that when something goes wrong people think of you first. I also like this poem and quote because not only does Billy Jo have to cope with her mother's death, she is also being blamed for the accident. This book, I believe, is appropriate for 13 and 14 year old teenagers because, being a teenager takes you through a lot of tough times and this book might be able to help or advise you through them. In some of the poems, the poetry takes a unique shape which I think helps a lot. It gives you more of a feel for the book. This way the reader can take some time to actually look and relate to the poem. I deeply liked this book because it gives you the story of a girl and her real life problems so that you can find a way out of your dilemma.
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Summary: Out of the Dust review
Review: Olivia abtahi Pd. 5 1/11/01"We shake our napkins, spread them on our laps, and flip over our glasses and plates, exposing neat circles, round comments on what life would be without dust. " (Hesse, 21) Without the dust, the family would not have to keep their dishes overturned before every meal. This quote illustrates that even the smallest things, such as dust, can change your everyday life-style. Although the book can, at some times, be profound and emotionally complex, a fourth grader would most probably understand the novel, and hopefuly, enjoy it. Out of the Dust, contains very little figurative language, with few similes and rarely personified poetry. It makes readers realize that telling the story as simply as possible can be enjoyable as well. To fully appreciate this book, one must read in between the lines and try and understand what Karen Hesse had purposely hidden. I truly enjoyed reading this book, with its simple answers, and the not-so-simple life of a 13 year old girl, living in a land of dust.
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Summary: Out of the Dust by Misbah, age 13
Review: "My father is amusement at the station, and I call him Daddy for the first time since Ma died, and we walk home, together, talking." (Hesse, 205) Out of the Dust, a book by Karen Hesse, is about a girl, Billie Jo, whose life is held in dust. Billie Jo doesn't have a happy, joyous life, but neither does she have a dull, boring life. She wouldn't be surprised to see layers of dust resting on her piano. She was born with dust all over. A favorite poem of mine, "Met", is about Billie Jo who just came back from running away on a train. Though her father was never too close to her daughter, it seemed as though with Billie Jo running away, it brought her father and herself closer to each other than before. As they had walked home together, each of their vile memories and mistakes melted away. I recommend this book to people ten and over. It is basically for anyone who likes to read poems. I state that it is for people older than ten because there are many words that are hard to understand and for the fact that it is in poem form, it makes it a little harder to understand. I liked when simile was used because it characterized and put personality to an object that Billie Jo was describing. An example of simile from "Met", is, "I tell him he is like the sod, and I am like the wheat..." (Hesse, 205)
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: I'd just remembered the cranberry sauce. My father loved Ma's special cranberry sauce. But she never showed me how to make it." (Hesse, 100 - 101) This poem set me into a depressing mood as it relates to my life. I've lost someon"Being there without Ma, without the baby, wouldn't have been so bad, if e in my life and to hear this poem struck the moment when things were just not the same without that person. The cranberry sauce to me alluded to the one that I have lost. The poem began with memories of her mother and onto a dinner comparison between the Christmas dinner at her school and the dinner that Billy Joe had prepared for her father. She begins to let herself take all the blame for such a bad dinner. The cranberry sauce had a huge effect on her and led her to a state of melancholy. The content within the book is depressing and should be recommended for young adults. Kids who are considered young adults are usually in the age margin where things such as death and emotions take a greater affect on them. This may relate to someone's life and help him or her cope with their problems. The book may be fiction but it still it is very realistic. Out of the Dust contains lots of simile and metaphor, I appreciate this because it helps relate or allude to other encounters of the same scenario. I wasn't that fond of the book in the beginning but once I got to the dramatic climax it caught my attention and drew me into the book. I felt as if my emotions were actually written on the pages. I liked the book and I recommend it to young adults. Read Out of the Dust and especially read "Christmas Dinner Without cranberry Sauce."
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: "Trees will break the wind. He says, trees will end the drought, the animals can take shelter there, children can take shelter. Trees have roots, he says. They hold on to the land." This quote is from my favorite poem in Out of the Dust. The poem is called "Roots." I chose this quote because it is very meaningful, and since trees are extremely important to the world, this poem is very superior. The book Out of the Dust is a very compelling, suspenseful, and tragic book all at the same time, with a 13-year-old Billie Joe who is faced with the tragedy of her mother dying. She has to deal with being surrounded by dust all her life, living in the Dust Bowl. She also has to deal with her father, who is very ungrateful, and doesn't even talk to her. Each event in this book is a poem. I believe that Karen Hesse uses a lot of figurative speech in this novel. Important to the book is "The wind roared like fire", and a simile "She smelled like scorched meat."
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Summary: Out of the Dust Review
Review: "She was are as a pear, raindrops sliding down her skin, leaving traces of mud on her face and her long back, slow tracks of wet dust down the bulge of her belly, My dazzling Ma, round and ripe and striped like a melon" (Hesse,56). This is an example of a chapter, or day, from the book Out of the Dust. This is one of the more descriptive poems in the book. I would recommend this book to children no younger than 12, because it is very depressing and sad.The main character in this book is Billie Jo, a spitfire who lived in Oklahoma at the time of the Dust Bowl. When Billie Jo's mother and little brother die from her father leaving a pale of kerosene beside the stove. Billie Jo's hands are burned badly from trying to save her mother from the fire that tore her family apart. Despite her deformed hands, she still, cooks and cleans, but has to give her obsession, playing the piano. Billie Jo's father becomes withdrawn and depressed, and he starts insanly digging a lake and building a windmill. He becomes an alcoholic, and spends the family's money on liqour. I really thought this book was well-written, but found it very dismal. The book was a narrative poem, a poem that tells a story. It used a lot of figurative language, similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration.
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Summary: Out of the Dust By Jessica
Review: "I didn't intend to, but I like her"(Hesse 212) This quote is from my favorite poem in Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust. The poem is called "The Other Woman." It is focused on Billie Jo's daddy's new girlfriend. The book Out of the Dust is a wonderful book. It is in narrative poem form, which is an easy read. It has large quantities of figures of speech and good content. This book is about a girl named Billie Jo who lives in the middle of the Dust Bowl. She has to struggle through piano recitals and the death of two very close family members by a fatal fire. For most of the story Billie Jo tries to get through the rough times she and her father go through. Billie Jo's father is so unpleasant he doesn't even talk much to his own daughter. Through out the story, the Dust Bowl brings many blustery dust storms upon Billie Jo and her father. This makes it very hard for them to eat, sleep, and especially for Billie Jo's burns to heal. I felt sorry for Billie Jo, even if this was not a true story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to read historical fiction.
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Summary: The rain will always come
Review: "It started out as snow, oh, big flakes floating softly, catching on my sweater, lacy on the edges of my sleeves." (Hesse, 176) These were the glorious words of Billie Jo as she saw what she had wanted to see for so long, snow. The poetic language goes on to explain how the joyful water fell from the sky, first as snow, then moving on to sleet, then rain. The soft language describes an oasis of dust, how it takes in the water quenching its every begging thirst. The entire book is composed of poems, free verse to be exact, but out of all of the wondrous poems "Hopes" true meaning appeals to me. "It kept coming, thunder booming, lighting kicking, dancing from the heavens down to the prairie, and my father dancing with it, dancing outside in the drenching night, with gutters racing, with the earth puddled and pleased, with my fatherÕs near-finished pond filling." This line depicts the hope that Bill Jo and her dad feel when the rain comes, when the rain pours, when the rain falls. One could say that this book is for only people 12+ and, but the bookÕs true meaning can be seen by any person. Anyone who can read should try to read this book, to decode its meaning. The book is written with such poetic language that it changes for each person; how you feel affects how the book sounds, how it feels. So next time you are feeling down, just remember Billie JoÕs words of comfort and think it will always rain.
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: "The rain has brought back some grass and the ranchers have put away the feed cake and sent their cattle out to graze." Out of the Dust is a story about a girl named Billie Joe who was implicated by all of the neighbors and her father for the death of her pregnant mother who died of severe burns from a fire. My favorite poem in this book is called "The Rain's Gift" because it shows that after a hard few days Billie Joe was a simple girl who could always find the good in things. An appropriate age group for this book would be for ages 10 and older because younger children might not be able to elucidate the poetry or not be able to take the sorrowful death of Billie Joe's mother. "Louise is back at the house. She wanted to come but this is Ma's place, Ma's grave, Franklin's too, and Louise has no business here.Well, I won't let her. Not everywhere." I appreciate Billie Joe's feelings in this passage because she shows a great respect and love for her mother and feels that visiting her mothers grave is something that only Billie Joe and her father should do together. I liked this book because it was written in a poetic form and it showed me how life living in dusty fields could be. Out of the Dust is a remarkable book that touches your heart.
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: "Fifty Miles South of Here" In Amarillo, wind blew plate-grass windows in, tore electric signs down, ripped wheat straight out of the ground. (Hesse,20) This book is mainly about a girl and her strife through life in the Dust Bowl. Her family had a farm, which grew crops and raised farm animals until the dust storms blew in. Now , the farm has no chance of making it because the dust kills the animals and the lack of water kills the crops. Now all they can do is hope for better weather and a chance to make it out alive from the dust storms. Out of the Dust is a book constructed of poems using different poetic devices. Most of the poems do not rhyme, but Hesse makes her own unique form of poetry. For example, she would make her poems and arrange the words all around the page. I am not the type of person that enjoys books that make you feel that the main character is going to give up, and then there is a happy ending. Personally, I believe that happy endings are boring endings and tedious endings are foreseen. I don't know how it received an award. If you like the "average" irksome storyline, choose this book; otherwise, read something better.
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