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

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Summary: The book is full of events that make you want to read more!
Review: This book has life threatning events that are scary when you don't know whats going to happen next. Billie Jo has a very strong character and I think that Karen Hesse did a very good job with that. Hesse also did a good job when she stirred in the facts about the Dust Bowl. She definitly deserved the Newberry Award for this book. I loved the book so much that I read the whole thing in one night! It was a great book and that is why I think it deserved 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: A great book!!!!
Review: I really like Out of the Dust.I think it is a book for people who like to learn about different time periods,and journal type form. Although it is in poetry you forget about it! Read Out of the Dust as soon as you can or you will regret it!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Very good book
Review: I read this book in my 8th grade honors Language class. With only 6 copies of the book for 25 students, we managed to finish the book in a week. I really enjoyed the book. It taught me a lot about life during the dust storms. I would recommend this book to anyone my age, and to teachers of junior high classes to read to their students.

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Summary: Page Turner
Review: You will never forget Bilie Joe. It's a really good book and you will want to read it again.

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Summary: A beautifully written story of emotional survival
Review: Out of the Dust deals with a girl named Billie Jo Kelby whose life is turned upside down when her mother and her infant brother die in a kitchen accident. Suddenly, she cannot communicate with her father, and due to injuries sustained in the accident, she does not think that she is capable of playing the piano, her one true passion. As the story continues, the reader sees the emotional growth in Billie Jo, and how she is eventually able to rebuild her life. This book was really wonderful as it was not difficult to read, but still, it was very though-provoking as Billie Jo often does not tell the reader exactly what she is thinking, so the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions. This is definitely a book which will leave you contemplating it after you have put it down.

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Summary: This is an outstanding book!!
Review: Out of the dust is about a girl named Billy Jo. Her mother dies in a bad accident and she has to learn to live with her father and her own guilt. This story takes place in the dust bowl in Oklahoma in the 1930's. This is a book filled with interesting charectors. If you like sad stories with lots of hope in them than I recomend this book to you.

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Summary: The book was challenging to understand but good.
Review: Karen Hesse has written a book about an emotional young girl who has to go through difficult times. Out of The Dust is a depressing book of sorrow. It seems the author is trying to tell you to get on with your life when going through terrible hardships.

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Summary: It was detailed, but to the point. It wasn't dry.
Review: Out of the Dust was a very good story about the Dust Bowl. I liked how it was informative and detailed and explained the characters emotions very well. It did all of this without getting dry and repetative. I liked how it showed the transitions of the characters and how they changed as the story moved on. There were parts that were very sad and so showed the very depressing part about the time period, and then there were parts that were uplifting. The depressing parts would include the middle of the story when the characters are close to giving up on the farm and their lives, after the death of the mother and brother, then the uplifting parts are when the father digs the pond, and the father and daughter realize what they really have and then they work hard, together, to put everything into place and start over again. I would recommend this book to anyone who does not have much time but wants to read a good story that has historical content.

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Summary: It made me cry
Review: This is one of the few books that made me cry. I like how it is written, it drags you into Billie Jo's feelings. I love how it is written in poem form, the book couldn't be written any other way.

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Summary: One of the most emotional book I have ever read!!
Review: I just finished this book for the second time. When my 5th grade teacher read it every day it was hard not to feel the emotions Billy Joe was having. The book was awesome and I reccomend it to anyone,any age!