Rating: 
Summary: Out of the Dust
Review: How would you feel if you were blamed for the fire that caused your mother and baby brother to die? How would you feel if the same fire caused you to stop doing what you love? That's how fourteen year old Billie Jo feels. Growing up in the Oklahoma panhandle where the dust swarms around you day and night, is not exactly the best place to grow up. The death of her mother causes her to become more angry and upset. She grows apart from her father and that makes it hard for her. Will she be able to cope with her feelings? Out of the Dust was a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: The best book in town!
Review: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is an inspiring book about the fun times and hardships that she had while living in the Dust Bowl Region. This book is very emotional and when you think that you have the worst life out of anybody in the world, you would always think about Billie Joe, a little girl that was the protaganust in the story. IN this book, she overcomes many of her injuries and makes use of the things that she still had. She was a very determined to do the things that an everyday girl would get to do. I recomened this book to people at the ages of 6-176. It is Outstanding!
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, I know it's good lit, but...
Review: Written in free-verse poetry, this novel is a harsh depiction of growing up in the dust bowl of Oklahoma during the Great Depression. The descriptive language is wonderful, especially accountings of the dust storms. While deserving of the Newbery for its literary value, I found it rather heavy-handed - too much death and destruction and too serious and sober a protagonist. Even Frank McCourt found a little light and humor in his terrible childhood of "Angela's Ashes".
Rating: 
Summary: I Don't Know
Review: As a member of the age group that this group targets (I'm 12, 13 in a few days), I feel like I should at least give "Out of the Dust" as much praise as those above the age level who have read it. Perhaps this book rings more true in the ears of people with real life experience, but for some reason, this book simply did not appeal to me. I like a novel where I can get deeply into the characters and into the setting, and this novel does not aid me in that as the works of Philip Pullman, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lloyd Alexander do. I have never been partial to overly dramatic poetry on non-poetic topics, and this work is 210 pages of just that. I think that the latter is the key reason I did not like the book, because I have thoroughly enjoyed most of the other books that Hesse has written. The end did give me a smile, but the smile was quite trivial and not really showing any emotion. The protagonist talks too much about her mother... So, in conclusion, I think that frankly, this book did not deserve the Newbery as much as some other works written this year by American authors did. Although I thought that it was "warm and fuzzy" at the end, it was overly melodramatic and weepy. Email me if you want to discuss! :D
Rating:
Summary: This book is certainly deserving of the Newbery Award.
Review: Karen Hesse has cleverly created one of
the most compelling books I've read.
Readers are taken, through the journal
passages of Billy Jo, into her life of misery.
Her mother's tragic death, of which Billy Jo
is partly responsible, only adds to her misery
and to her father's continued drinking.
Billy Jo salvation lies in her courage and her
love for the piano. This story is told in
free verse poetry and gives the reader a
glimpse into the miserable life of people
scratching out an existence in the Dust Bowl
during the Depression. This is a must read
book for all readers of courage and determination.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this touching book -- it is NOT just for kids!
Review: Though intended for readers ages 9-12, older adolescent and adult readers will enjoy this book as well. Written in blank verse form and composed as a journal of events from 1934 through 1935 rather than written in "novel" form, this book will both surprise and touch you deeply. If you know the "dust bowl" region of depression-era Oklahoma and West Texas, you will find much in this book with which to identify. Teachers will be able to use this book to demonstrate just how adverse the weather conditions became during some of the worst days of the depression; they will also find the book useful to relate the events in the story to actual historical events of the time period, as noted in the young girl's journal entries. But it is not only a book with an historical background, it is a story about overcoming grief, loss, and pain, enduring the worst of nature's hardships and ultimately, recovering and achieving redemption. A young girl endures both the loss of her mother and infant brother, but also sustains and suffers through a painful, disfiguring, debilitating physical injury. In the process of dealing with these losses, she also faces the problem of becoming more and more alienated from her father while they are each in the midst of their own grief. Now, this sounds mighty grim -- but I guarantee that if you read through to the end, you will be richly rewarded and uplifted by this tale of the triumph of the human spirit. DO NOT miss this Newbery Award winner!
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: I just finished reading Out of the Dust and am still blinking back tears and have a large lump in my throat. This is one of the most beautifully written pieces of literature I've read in a very long time. Hesse's imagery and the music of her language is exquisite. Thank you Karen, for the research, dedication and love it must have taken to write this. It's a gift to readers of all ages.
Rating:
Summary: Newbery Winner for 1997
Review: Just announced as the winner of the Newbery prize at ALA's mid-winter meeting January 12, 1998! A "must" read!
Rating:
Summary: The most touching book I have read in a long, long time.
Review: This is the best book, the saddest book, and the most touching book I have read in a long, long time. I don't think there's another book quite like OUT OF THE DUST, that can touch the heart, and provoke the mind. A tale of hard times in Oklahoma in the Great Depression, and of Billie Jo Kelby, the survivor type, determined to make a better life for herself - not easy when you are a fourteen year old living on an Oklahoma wheat farm during the Depression, losing your mother in a tragic way...a must read for anyone!
Rating: 
Summary: "A powerfully compelling tale"*
Review: Here are more wonderful reviews of Karen Hesse's astonishing OUT OF THE DUST: In a starred review, Publishers Weekly writes:
"This intimate novel, written in stanza form, poetically conveys the heat, dust, and wind of Oklahoma along with the discontent of narrator Billie Jo, a talented pianist growing up during the Depression. . . . Hesse's spare prose adroitly traces Billie Jo's journey in and out of darkness. With each meticulously arranged entry she paints a vivid picture of Billie Jo's emotions, ranging from desolation ('I look at Joe and know our future is drying up / and blowing away with the dust') to longing ('I have a hunger for more than food. / I have a hunger / bigger than Joyce City') to hope.
In a starred review, Booklist* writes:
"The entire novel is written in very readable blank verse, a superb choice for bringing out the exquisite agony and delight to be found in such a difficult period lived by such a vibrant character."
In a starred review, School Library Journal writes:
"Hesse's ever-growing skill as a writer willing to take chances with her form shines through superbly in her ability to take historical facts and weave them into the fictional story of a character young people will readily embrace."
As Karen's publisher of 10 years, I've worked on almost all her books. I thought I couldn't love a book more than I did her MUSIC OF DOLPHINS (Scholastic Press, 1996), but OUT OF THE DUST may be her best book ever. I hope you'll feel the same way.
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