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

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Summary: Make sure you have some tissue beside you when you read it.
Review: Out of the dust is a book you'll never forget. Billy joe, I think thats her name is an extrordainary character.

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Summary: This book was Excelent, it's even on the PA choose awards!
Review: This book was touching and one of the best books i have ver read. It looks dumb but once you start to read you can't stop! This girl had a hard life, and it makes you realise how much you should be greatful for!

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Summary: A beautiful book to use with the Basic School.
Review: I teach at a Basic School in Fairfax, VA and have found Out of the Dust to be a perfect book for a 5th grade read aloud. My students and I were able to discuss the core virtues, an imporant component of the Basic School. Compassion, giving, perseverance,and responsibility are given a fine showcase. The core Commonalities of Connection to Nature, Producing and Consuming, Living With Purpose and Use of Symbols allowed my students to have in depth discussions. Of course, the language itself is magnificent and the story is moving. It's a great gift to share with a child, but also a wonderful book to share with an adult...especially your mother!

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Summary: Pulls you in emotionally to understand the book
Review: This book tells the story of what it might have been like living during the Dust Bowl. "Out of the Dust" also shows a young girls will to escape the sadness and sorrow of her life, but then relizes that the only good thing in her life is her family and what really matters to them.

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Summary: Beautiful
Review: Karen Hesse has wriiten a thought provoking, educational and touching novel. It deserves any and all praise and awards it recieves. The simple yet poetic lines that seem to come straight from the girls mind.

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Summary: This book was very descriptive, and told a wonderful story.
Review: Do you think your life is down in the dumps? Well your problems are probably minor to one little girl's problem. The main character in this book has to overcome many challenges. When her life could not get any worse, something tradgic happens. This book is about a young girl that lives in the time of the dust bowl. When things could possibly get no worse, her mother is killed in a horrible accident. Her father grows farther and farther away from her. Then finally she decides she can't take it anymore and she runs away. Then she figures out that running away didn't solve her problems, and she returns home! Her father decides that they need to start over and he remarries a lady named Louise. And together they start their journey Out of the Dust! Karen Hesse wrote many good phrases. One of these phrases is "And the certainty of home, the one I live in, and the one that lives in me. The moral of this book teaches you not to take things for granted, because it can all vanish before your very eyes. And bad things happen that we can't change, and the answser is not running away because it doesn't help.

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Summary: This book was one of the best i ever read!
Review: This book tells about how a girl, Billie JO. She is an exellent piano player and played at many places for money. Her mom is pregnant and her dad hopes for a boy. One day Billie JO and her mother were in the kitchen and they saw a bucket on fire her mother runs out of the house. Billie Jo picks it up with her bare hands and runs to the door. She quickly poors it out but on mistake she poored it on her mother! The doctor came and gave Billie Jo and her mother bandages for their wounds. Billie Jo is unable to plat piano and her mother bed riden. But the day comes for her mother to give birth but tragically her mother dies shortly after. Her fathers hopes did come true well, at least one of them he had a son Franklin named after the president. But soon afterwards he died too. Her father started going to night school and met a women their and about a few years later sarted seeing her. Not too long after she started coming over a lot. Billie Jo liked her but didn't want to admitt it because she still missed her mother. Her hands are better now but she doesn't play as well as she used to. She plays at a local talent show but she came in 3rd place! That's good but not for her she usually came in 1st. In the end Billie Jo, her father, and her fathers girlfriend Louise live happily in thier little farm house down south. This book inspired me. It showed me that are troubles worse than our own and maybe we should start thinking about thoughs less fortunate. I think you should read this book because it's one of my favorites and if you like these kinds of books you'll surely love this one.

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Summary: This book was cleverly and wonderfully written.
Review: Karen Hesse did an excellent job of expressing the character's emotions. She portrayed the feelings of death and happiness wonderfully. With characters such as Billy Jo and Bayard this had to be one of the best books I ever read. This book was exciting and breathtaking, kept you on your toes, and made you want to listen and read more. Karen Hesse turned what looked like an ordinary poetry book into a real life story of an everyday family's life. While reading this book we learned that your problems never get better if you run away and you can never give up even if life seems at its worst.

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Summary: A perfect book for literature circles
Review: Out of the Dust is a wonderfully written novel about the struggles of a courageous young girl living in the times of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. It is an ideal book to use in literature circles in a classroom setting. A metaphoric novel, Out of the Dust is both straight-forward and yet complex at the same time, ideal for an average classroom with varying levels of ability in understanding and interpreting literature. I recommend this book to all students and teachers, as well as any other adult...it is an honest tale of personal and interpersonal struggle told from the viewpoint of a very courageous, fourteen-year-old.

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Summary: a moving, easy read for both kids & adults
Review: I listened to my 10-year-old daughter read this book to me. There were times we could hardly control the tears and sadness for this realistic character. Excellect period piece (5th grade history project). We loved it!