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Summary: Out of the Dust review
Review: "The flaming oil splashed onto her apron, and Ma, suddenly Ma, was a column of fire. I pushed her to the ground, desperate to save her, desperate to save the baby, I tried, beating out the flames with my hands. I did the best I could. But it was no good. Ma got burned bad." (Hesse, 61)"The Accident" is my favorite poem because it describes one of the most important events in the book in great detail. Although this event was awkward, the author did her best to describe the event in an attractive way. This book is best read between the ages 10-12. The book is very sad and it also describes someone being caught on fire. The best literary device used is the simile. Some examples are "She smells like scorched meat" (Hesse, 67) and "Then he looked at me sorry as dust" (Hesse, 185) I disliked this book from the very start. Although it is an easy read, the book is boring and still a bit tedious. The book never really picked up my interest and made it difficult to read. The book is very strange, especially when it describes the mother burning and the main character, Billie Jo, having her hands enlarged.
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: "Dust piles up like snow across the prairie, dunes leaning against fences, mountains of dust pushing over farms." (Hesse, 102) Life is hard for thirteen-year-old Billie Jo Kelby, born during the Dust Bowl and the Depression in the panhandle of Oklahoma. Her love for her mother, father and to-be born brother and the piano compels her to stay in this dangerous, life- threatening territory that could shatter her family's whole way of living with one hour of a dust storm. Tragedy occurs, though not from a dust storm, but from a crises from a stove fire that leaves Billy Jo's mother and unborn baby lifeless and her hands useless stubs which puts all of Billy Jo's dreams in peril. This is an exciting book with great descriptions and wonderful poetry. The best poem, in my point of view, is the poem "The Dream" (Hesse, 193) which is a simile comparing the piano to Billy Jo's dead mother. Although this book is sad, it has an excellent ending and it's a great book for ages nine to twelve. So I recommend Out of the Dust as a great novel. S. A.
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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: "On Sunday, winds came, bringing a red dust like prairie fire, hot and peppery, searing the inside of my nose, the whites of my eyes." This quote is a perfect example of the events that take place in Out of the Dust. It is from the poem "Dust and Rain," which is about how dust comes sweeping over the prairie very often, but how rain rarely comes. This poem could almost be used as a summary of the entire book because of how it talks about dust. Dust and dust storms are the main threat of life to Billie Jo living in the Oklahoma dust bowl. Even if the dust doesn't kill her, in her opinion it is ruining her life. It comes and covers everything, even her beloved piano. Besides the dust, a series of bad events happen which causes Billie Jo to burn herself and leave her without her mother. As Billie Jo grows older, missing her mother and not being able to play the piano because of her disfigured hands, she has to learn to live with the dust and all the other "bad" things in her life. This book is written entirely in the form of free verse poetry. Although it is poetry, sometimes it seems more like a diary or journal entry. The poetry in this book is filled with metaphors and similes, among other types of figurative language. One example of a metaphor is when Billie Jo's dad is talking about how dust is everywhere, including in their food. "Chocolate milk for dinner, aren't we in clover!" This is just one example of many metaphors throughout the book. I thought that this book was very well written, but I still didn't like it very much. It was horribly depressing along with being very slow moving and a little bit confusing. The poems would just skip around on different subject matters and would seem to go on forever. One depressing event would happen after the other. If you don't mind being a little depressed, then this would be a good book for you to read. I would recommend this book for anybody from 5th grade to adult.
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Summary: The Depressing Story
Review: "I couldn't tell her, Couldn't bring myself to say, Her apples were gone. I never had a chance. Ma died that day Giving birth to my brother."(Hesse, 69) Out of the Dust is a sad, depressing, and disturbing novel. The whole book is written in poems that describe how Billie Jo learns the hardships of life through death, depression, and dust. This book is about the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Billie Jo and her family work day by day just to survive. This book is appropriate for teens. I found this book depressing because Karen Hesse describes death and suffering through poems in the book. Out of the Dust is a book that made me think about suffering, and how life in the Dust Bowl felt. I recommend this book only if you like sad books.
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Summary: Out Of The Dust
Review: I think this is a very thought provoking book. It really makes you think about how fortunate you are compared to those people. I am so glad that every evening when i eat dinner I don't have to worry about my dinner being covered with dust or whether the pepper is really pepper:0). It has some very sad parts, funny, and adventurous parts. It is not my favorite book though.
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Summary: My Review...
Review: This is a sad book, but good. It expresses experiences that a lot of people had felt. I was really sorry for Billie Joe. After I finished it It made me think of all my family members that have died.
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Summary: This is the best book yet!
Review: This book was great! It was sad yet still fun! I liked a lot! I would like to read it again. I recomend this to other people even gorwnups! I hope people will read this and take my owrd for it!
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Summary: Read This Fascination!
Review: Have you ever read a book that was depressing? I liked OUT OF THE DUST because the author makes her writings visual, and i like to read books with entries instead of chapters. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes to read books that are like diaries. Books that basically have entries instead of chapters.
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Summary: To skim or not to skim
Review: The purpose for the author, Karen Hesse, was to relate a story of girl living during the depression. The story complete with intense feeling as a result of it being told first person. Another strength is the way this published journal of Karen Hesse flows together smoothly. She has many entries in her journal that do not seem to apply to the story, but one finds it is foreshadowing an event soon to come. Hesse must of published this book to give honor to all of the people that lived in the dust storms of the depression in dead farms. She gives the reader a sense of how hard it really was and why that time in our countries history really was a difficult depression to live through. Karen Hesse burns her hands while saving her mother and the baby her mother is carrying inside of her. The mother catches fire to her apron while working in the kitchen. Before this time Karen was an incredible pianist. She played many performances and even began to make money for her music. Nevertheless, it hurt her hands to play the piano. The most exciting part of this book is when she plays a beautiful song (with burnt hands) and afterwards is in terrible agony. During the playing of the song she is floating in the sky loving every second of the experience. This part in life showed how strong of a girl she was. Karen Hesse was the main character and only character thoroughly portrayed in all aspects. Therefore, I related the most to Karen Hesse because I found many more experiences that were similar in my life. I have not had as hard of hardships and as big of downfalls. However, I do share the quality of being talented in areas and at times finding myself not able to perform those activities be effects that were not caused by me and effects that I would not have been able to prevent. If I was a critic, and I criticized this work of words, I would rate it an eight out of ten. First, I take away one point on the criteria of the introduction. I could have easily stopped reading this book during the first 20 pages and not felt any loss are wanting to continue reading. It is a good foreground to the rest of the story, but because of the nature of diary entries, it took awhile for the story to really come to a real plot. It just seems to wander during the first pages. It loses the other point because I never was really pulled into this book. One way I judge a book is how I end up reading it. I usually read later in the evening about 9-11 o'clock P.M. If a book is slightly boring or does not have enough feeling to make me feel like I am part of the story, I will fall asleep with the book on my face. If the book is a real mind catcher and the story is very meaningful I tend to be kept away in suspense or curiosity. Extra-ordinary books even keep up longer than I would like to be and I stay up reading to all hours of the night.
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Summary: Great ! ! !
Review: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse was very educational in a historical way. The way this story was written is very interesting. It is written in a dairy form but not day by day, instead it's logs are more like whenever the main character can fill in a log. It covered the way of life people had in the mid 1800's. From school conditions to dust storms, this book covered it all. Out of the Dust's story-line is centered on a young girl named Billy Jo. Her life is going fine until the dust storms start occuring all over the country. 1st, all of the crops is slowly shivering away. Also because of the dust storms, Billy Jo who loves to play her piano's, hands are withering away, which adds to the problems which arise in this addicting, heart filled story. At times there are scenes where you can feel the dust hit you face in a dust storm. Take the time to read this book. It is very historical, and heart filled. I promise you it will provide a time well spent.
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