Hesse, Karen. 1997. OUT OF THE DUST. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0590360809.

Set during the Great Depression, this compelling tale introduces us to Billie Jo, a fourteen-year-old girl struggling with her family to survive on an Oklahoma wheat farm that is suffering the effects of the Dust Bowl. The novel covers the period of January 1934 to December 1935, but is far more than an account of an agricultural disaster or one family’s perspective of it. Told in the form of free verse poems from first-person point of view, Hesse balances the “black storms” of the Oklahoma plains with the internal storms besetting Billie Jo after a tragic fire takes the lives of her mother and unborn brother. Billie Jo blames herself for the accident, though she suffers severe burns on her hands in trying to put out the fire.

Billie Jo shares her mother’s musical gift and plays jazz on the family’s prized piano but sadly the injuries to her hands preclude Billie Jo’s best chance for emotional healing, preventing her from expressing her grief or reaching out to friends following the tragedy.
Despite everything, Billie Jo copes with her circumstances and learns to forgive nature, her father, and herself. Through her poems, Hesse explores Billie Jo's feelings of pain, grief, longing, rage, and occasionally joy, revealing a “determined heroine who confronts unrelenting misery and begins to transcend it.” (Kirkus Reviews, 1997)

The author’s descriptions of the efforts the residents took to cope with the dust present an authentic representation of the time period and help the reader gain insight into what it was like to battle the pervasive, windblown soil that permeated and smothered houses, lungs, and livelihoods. Notes on the book’s sources and resources for further exploration of the subject were not included, perhaps to focus attention on the emotional aspects of the story. “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.” (SLJ, 1997)

Reviews and Awards

Publishers Weekly: "This intimate novel, written in stanza form, poetically conveys the heat, dust and wind of Oklahoma. With each meticulously arranged entry, Hesse paints a vivid picture of her heroine's emotions."

Booklist starred review: “the story is bleak, but Hesse's writing transcends the gloom and transforms it into a powerfully compelling tale of a girl with enormous strength, courage, and love.”

School Library Journal starred review: “The author's astute and careful descriptions of life during the dust storms of the 1930s are grounded in harsh reality.”

Newbery Medal winner, 1998
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 1998
School Library Journal Best Books Of The Year, 1997
ALA Best Books For Young Adults 1998
ALA Notable Children’s Books, 1998
Numerous state book awards

Connections

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is hard for young people of today to imagine. To give students perspective and to help them understand the nature of this ecological disaster, one extension activity would be to show a video documentary on the subject. This excellent video from PBS examines both the Dust Bowl’s environmental causes and it’s human impact:

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Surviving The Dust Bowl
Director: Mark Samels, Rocky Collins
Rated: NR Run time: 55 min.
Studio: PBS Home Video
Video Release Date: April 28, 1998

Other historical fiction novels told in verse, letter, or diary format by Karen Hesse:
Aleutian Sparrow, 2003
Letters from Rivka, 1992
Stowaway, 2000
Witness, 2001