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

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Summary: GO, BILLIE JO!
Review: I loved it! It was sad, happy and a wonderfully written, so check it out, K? Well, you'll totally love it, it's DA BOMB! It's got a great story line and ending! It deserved the Newberry Award!

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Summary: A reader from Arkansas
Review: This was one of the most compelling and spellbinding books I have read. I am a teacher, and I could not put it down. Billie Jo lives during the dustbowl years of the 1930s. She not only has to live with the overwhelming loss of her mother and baby brother but also with the scarred hands that keep her from the one thing she loves-playing the piano. Written in poetic form, it is heartwrenching and touching. It is her strength of character that saves this young girl and her father. A must for young teens and also a must for the classroom library.

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Summary: into book hollywood
Review: What a wonderful read! A very inspiring story about a girl coping during the dust bowl in the south, trying to be a great piano player. Told entirely in poems from the main character's point of view, this is a fascinating and very touching tale that readers will never forget...don't make the mistake of overlooking this one. It will make you cry and laugh and leave you wanting to write a poem! Enjoy!

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Summary: BOOK REVIEW
Review: I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS VERY INTERESTING - BORING. I WAS IMPRESSED, CONSIDERING I HAD TO READ THIS BOOK FOR SCHOOL.

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Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: I LOVED Out of the Dust! I used to live in Oklahoma, so it was a really great way to learn about what it was like living there during the dust bowl! I really love the way you feel like your reading a diary! This is an excellent book, I definatley recomend reading it! If you don't, your missing out on a chance to learn a part of American history that not too many people talk about!

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Summary: Excellent
Review: I loved the prose poetry into novel concept. A great story that explores a time in history that America would rather forget. Unforgettable.

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Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: Book Review Book: Out of the Dust Author: Karen Hesse Imagine the life of a girl who lived on the prairies and everyday, she hoped the rain would come make the plants grow to feed their hungry stomachs. This is the life of fourteen-year-old Billy Jo. With a new child on the way, Billy Jo's family is helplessly stuck in the middle of a dust storm while their farm gets torn apart. When a terrible accident struck, Billy is robbed of the one thing that brought comfort to her life. The Piano. She remembers feeling so joyful sitting at the wooden bench with her hands placed on the keys. Her joyfulness is shown through the poem entitled, On Stage. "When I point my fingers at the keys, the music springs straight out of me. Right hand slaying notes sharp as tongues, telling stories while the smooth buttery rhythms back me up on the left. . . (Page 13)" But that was before the accident, now she wonders if life will ever be the same. Karen Hesse's book is far from the ordinary. Her unique style is hard to find. This novel is written in as a journal but also told by several poems. Instead of chapters there are different poems, each with their own theme. Reading a story written entirely in poems might not be the easiest thing but I think it nudges the reader to think outside the box: to think in different ways about the story. This novel also provides a challenge for the reader. Karen Hesse's creativity is shown throughout the book, never slacking. Her poems are shaped to suit the topic. For example in the poem, which was quoted earlier, the words are shaped like the key's of a piano as the poem's talking about the piano. This book gives a small peek into the life on the prairies, but it's enough to give a feeling of what it's like. Karen Hesse's view into the prairie life showed both the ups and downs that I thought set her apart from some other authors. So if you're looking for a brake from the ordinary, Karen Hesse's book, Out of the Dust, is the way to go!

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Summary: Don't get lost in the Dust!
Review: The wind is blowing, the dust is so thick you can't see your feet. This is the common scene in Oklahoma in 1934. This novel of dated poems is a compelling tale of a 14 yr. old girl named Billie Jo, While fighting the elements on her father's farm, Billie Jo gets more jobs when her mother and unborn brother die in an accident resulting form her father's carlessness and her thoughtless actions. She can't take the emotional and physical pain to continue her dreams of playing the piano. So with shattered dreams and a hopeless heart, Bille Jo skips town on a train headed west. The realization that she will be happiest at home sets in, and Billed Jo gets excited about starting over with her father, his new love interest, and the determination to succeed.

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Summary: Good but bad
Review: Out of the Dust is such a well writen book with good fellingsand detail. But I didn't like the issues that Billie Joe had to livewith. Such as her father who wanted her to be a boy, what happened to her mother and baby brother. The dust storm. So I guess I'll say that Karen Hesse really painted pictures in your head of the book and wrote it very well, but it's not my taste for book. Out of the Dust really is a good book and I see perfectly how it got that medal, but I didn't like the story that's all.

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Summary: Great Book!
Review: I personally think this is a great book and you should read it. Billy Jo is a red-haired girl with freckles. She really is a nice person, except when she............The inside of the book looks like a poem, but it isn't. Really pay attention to what it says! So go buy that book and READ,READ,READ!