Out of the Dust

Locations
Call Number: R Newbery Medal 1998, Y Fiction / Hesse, Karen, Kids Book / Fiction / Historical / Hesse, Karen
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Kids Reference 0-week checkout	R Newbery Medal 1998	0-week checkout	Library Use Only
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Hesse, Karen	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Hesse, Karen	4-week checkout	Due 04-26-2024
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Hesse, Karen	4-week checkout	Due 05-01-2024
Traverwood Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Fiction / Historical / Hesse, Karen	4-week checkout	Due 04-18-2024

Youth level.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

a must read!!! submitted by Maria97 on July 7, 2011, 1:43pm A great book about courage and forgiveness.

Amazing submitted by 04foremanh on July 9, 2012, 5:50pm Well written and very descriptive

Moving, Wrenching Poetry submitted by sdunav on August 23, 2015, 8:00pm The poems are beautiful, and haunting, and describe a time and a place (Oklahoma's panhandle in the early 1930's) so well that I really felt transported. The things that Hesse writes about - dust, over and over again, throughout the book, gritty and heavy and so pervasive - but also pregnancy, horrible accidents, rain, apples, music, and the longing to run away - really tell a very powerful story. In that respect "Out of the Dust" reminded me of the intertwined stories in the Spoon River Anthology. And Billie Jo? She's more than a little like an older Caddie Woodlawn, with her red hair, conflicts with her parents, and her independent nature.

I do think that "Out of the Dust" is better for kids on the older edge of the Newbery award readers - the sudden death and grief in "Out of the Dust" are not easy topics, for either adults or kids.

But the beauty, redemption, and hope makes it worth it.

Not my favorite submitted by priscilladu on June 27, 2018, 9:48am I had to read this book for class and honestly I wasn't the hugest fan of it. It's really heavy and not very interesting in my opinion. I'm also not the hugest fan of poetry books. This story is also really depressing and conflicted which isn't my cup of tea. Overall I would rate it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.