Book Review - OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hesse, Karen. 2007. OUT OF THE DUST. New York, NY: Scholastic. ISBN 0590371258


2. PLOT SUMMARY
Set in the mid 1930's in Oklahoma, this novel takes the reader into the harsh reality of one family's struggle. Tragedy claims the life of our heroine's mother and barely born brother. The poetry guides us through the age of the Dust Bowl and we watch as a family tries desperately to shake off that dust instead of becoming one with it.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Wow. What a powerful glimpse into the weary world of this tragically scarred family. As I read, I didn't want to turn the page. I was afraid of what would happen next. But yet I kept going. It was almost like not wanting to watch a train wreck, but yet not being able to turn away. The book grabs you from the first page and almost strangles you a third of the way in.

Hesse's free-verse poetry does what prose could never do; visually communicates pain and suffering. The poetry left me feeling as raw as the burns on Billie Jo's hands and heart. The self-imposed guilt Billie Jo feels is nothing compared to that thrown by others.
'"Billie Jo threw the pail,"
they said. "An accident,"
they said.
Under their words a finger pointed.'

Dust is threaded throughout this carpet of verse. It is everywhere and in everything. It is death. It is hardship. It is feelings. It is what we haven't become and what we are making of ourselves. Hesse's metaphorical use of this imagery lulls us. We wade in it and by the time Billie Jo is ready to leave her home, we are in a quagmire. We feel her pain and her anger and her longing for a family that loves her.

After Billie Jo comes back to her father, Hesse snags us again with her words:
'I tell him about getting out of the dust
and how I can't get out of something
that's inside me.'

For better or for worse, this is a book that creeps into you like the dust it conveys. You see it in the dirty face of a child. You feel it in the wind that whips. You smell it in an old room. It is never to be forgotten.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
* Starred review in KIRKUS REVIEWS: "Told in free-verse poetry of dated entries that span the winter of 1934 to the winter of 1935, this is an unremittingly bleak portrait of one corner of Depression-era life. The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope; there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality."

* Starred review in 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."


5. CONNECTIONS
*I would think that most children would have no idea about the Dust Bowl. To fix this, have them do a one-page report on what it was. They can use encyclopedias, reference books, or the internet.

*We have a book in our library called THE DUST BOWL by David Booth. This is an easy to read picture book that would open a child's eyes to a visual representation of what Billie Jo's word may have looked like. Read and discuss.