I never enjoyed my history subject when I was young, I always have the worst teacher and the worst field trips in my entire life. Contradict to that, I enjoyed reading historical fiction and children's books. Although I don't have any idea about dust bowl or the great depression or whatever happened that time. I told you, I never learned something from my world history teacher. But after reading this book last year, I was amazed that Karen Hesse wrote something emotional for children to love and to learn by reading, not in prose but in verses.Imagine a depressing book for children! I like this kind of books, not because it was so emotional or too gore because I can feel emotions of the characters and the events that happened on the book. Maybe the verses really put something special and added more spices for the book to be like and won the Newberry Medal. The book was also called as verse novel, a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic verse-forms may be used, but there will usually be a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a novelistic manner. This type of writing is also used in some of the famous novels like Iliad. Maybe some find it annoying or find it too elegant, it depends on the reader itself. The novel happened in 1934 to 1935 where Oklahoma is in a state of depression because of the great drought and dust storm happened. Hesse said, that in the late 90s issues like this was not entirely been covered by the media and only limited resources were shared via newspapers and journals. It must be depressing in their own time and place with limited food and water, destroyed shelter, dieing relatives and dust pneumonia. As a kidg, how can you help yourself and your family to survive in the dust?Billy Jo, started writing in the year 1934 describing her physical characteristic and her love to music. She wanted green fields and flowers that blooms and smelled like the morning but a very tragic happened, a great drought soon came and started a dust storm that killed the plants, the animals, her friends, family and even her dreams. She was a simple kid with a big dream, wanted to play piano vigorously, non-stop and had a crush like normal kids. Those dreams dry up when her dad accidentally stored a bucket of kerosene and her mother boiled and splashed with the kerosene that burned her mother, her fetus brother and her delicate hands. Losing not only her dream of having a happy family but also her mother's dream for her to go outside Oklahoma to study and play piano. She managed to move on and try to be like any other girls. Can she survive from the loneliness and depression that manifested all the people that time or she will be another corpse for people to mourn with?But that time not all people mourn for their safety, but they also enjoyed what little they have from the food they shared to the people who sheltered them. Playing pianos and small dance gathering were the only happiness they have. While reading the book I was like reading in proses, Hesse didn't used rhyming words and the book is specially crafted for children."the way i see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up." Because of major agricultural farming, soil were becoming unfertile and people were not prepared to face the long drought causing dust storm.Rating - Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, 5 Sweets and blessings for the survivors! (I really enjoyed reading this book and it was so amazing that Hesse wrote this in unique way. Writing it by verses to play with the characters emotion. Not bad and recommended for those people who like to read Steinbeck books.)Challenges:Book #68 for 2011Goodreads - Filipinos, 2nd Quarter: (Book 1) YA Book from Kwesi's Shelf
This story is so dark and gruesome that if it were put in prose and not in verse, would probably not pass the standard of the judges for the Newberry Medal. Yes, this won that medal (1998) because the beautiful verses toned down the gloom and sadness that even a middle-age man Asian guy like me felt while imagining what happened to the Kelby family during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl in 1934-1935. It is just too sad that even the harrowing experience of the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s magnum opus, "The Grapes of Wrath", can’t compare. Imagine:- you are an only child and all of you, your father and mother, are all bone and skin because of poverty.- you set your pregnant mum on fire and when she gave birth, she and the infant died- you cannot play piano anymore because your hand got burned too- your father has cancer and one time you found him digging his own graveAt least the Joad family, in Steinbeck 1940 novel is an extended one and the men were able to work in the farm so they left Sallisaw for California. The Kelby family has no choice but to stay and wait for their death. The Joad family has 2-4 healthy men unlike here where there is only the father Bayard who works alone in the farm but unfortunately gets cancer in the middle of the story. At least, Rose of Sharon Joad Rivers of Grapes was healthy and her milk could feed the dying man. Here, the protagonist is a 14-y/o Bille Jo Kelby who’s still studying and only plays a piano to help the family and she has no milk yet. Okay this is a children’s book so let’s not go there.But seriously, the story is bleaker than Grapes and I am glad that I read this since the latter is one of my favorites. The Dust Bowl is the reverse of tsunami. During the dust bowl, it is hot, dry, and dust flies around like a black storm. In tsunami, it is water everywhere. Both of them are harrowing, shocking and can be unimaginably furious and can fatal to hundreds of people.Nice unforgettable read.
What do You think about Out Of The Dust (2005)?
I read this book for my goodreads Newbery online book club. I thought it was very good, but should be in the YA section. The horror, guilt, and anguish of the accident which killed the mother and maimed the main character's hands are not appropriate for elementary school children. It seems that I've read several books lately written in blank verse (others by Sharon Creech). I really appreciate that form. The words flow simply and easily so that I almost forget I am reading poetry. But actually it is powerful and lovely to choose the perfect words and compress such meaning into them. I liked the part in Out of the Dust where the town took in the homeless family and let them live in the school while the mother had her baby. That act of hope, love and giving helped to balance out the grimness all around. It was also a good history lesson about the Dust Bowl.
—Dawn
Out of the Dust is my kind of book. It is an incredibly emotional story told through poetry. The book is slow paced because of the poetic convention but this allows your feelings to develop and grow as you sympathize for the main character Billie Jo and her family. Even though Out of the Dust is set less than a century ago it feels like a very different world. The Depression was tough for a lot of people but the Dust Bowl was truly horrific. Often times when people think about such major tragedies in history they forget about individual people and their own stories. Or when authors write historical fiction they let the conflict set a backdrop and barely go into it focussing on the characters and their lives. Out of the Dust balances the two really nicely. Billie Jo is a young girl and might not understand a lot of what is going on around her, but it is not difficult to understand what things really mean when you have the right background. Even without the background it is not difficult to imagine the significance of what happens. In the fifth grade this book was pivotal to my understanding of the Depression and the Dust bowl. Told through the eyes of a young girl Billie Jo was easy to identify with even if her struggles were not. The way the free verse poetry lends itself to the reader makes the troubles and the emotions of Billie Jo very plain spoken. Her words really hit home creating vivid images of thin sheets of dust covering food, thicker layers of dust caving in houses, the layers of dust hanging in the air making it necessary to wear bedsheets over open wounds. It's gruesome and terrifying to think about. Even though the Dust Bowl was a natural disaster it was still caused by poor Agricultural techniques as described by Billie Jo when she mentioned her father taking out a loan for more wheat (a government New Deal incentive) which was squandered away just as fast as he could drink the money away. The book is laced with a lot of emotional baggage dealing with poverty, alcoholism, guilt and shame, despair, and perseverance. They were dealt with delicately and the poems were empowering. The book flowed nicely and poems echoed one another hauntingly reminiscing the time before the trouble and looking for a hope. Out of the Dust is also a very quick read and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who would like a new take on America's darkest hour. Even though it's told from a young narrator it is timeless and everyone can benefit. There's always something new to be found in this enriching read.
—Ln Rispoli
Tough read. But then the Dust Bowl was a tough time to live through. Moments in this story are very dark and depressing. But then the Dust Bowl was a dark depressing time. Through most of it I felt like I was eating dust. But then people who lived through the Dust Bowl really did eat dust. At least I only had to eat it while I read the story. Those who lived through it couldn't get away from it. Dust was their constant unconquerable bane and companion.What I think this story is really about is the tenacity of the human spirit to survive. No matter what nature or life throws at us, some of us will continue to live. And out of that survival, out of the dust, those of us who remain will grow and flourish and plant anew.This is a beautiful story about sorrow and struggle and determination. If your heart is too tender, be aware.
—Bish Denham
