Out of the Dust – Book Review
Title: Out of the Dust
Author: Karen Hesse
Reading age: 8 to 12
Out of the Dust is a fascinating, haunting and sad story of the Great Depression. Karen Hesse’s YA novel narrows the focus of the catastrophic Dust Bowl in the Southwest during the 1930s to a single family living in Oklahoma. Through a series of free verse poems, fourteen-year-old Billie Jo Kelby’s bleak voice leads the reader through grim domestic realities and constant dust storms. However, Billie Jo still has dreams of a future.
On the road with Arley
“This is how I imagine it.
My place in the world is at the piano.
I’m making a little money playing
thanks to Arley Wanderdale.
…… And every little crowd
he’s grateful to hear a rag or two played
on the piano
by a red-haired girl with long legs,
even when the piano has some dust-soured keys.
The starkness of Billie Jo’s circumstances immerses the reader deep into a first-hand account of the Depression. On each page you will find yourself completely engrossed in the daily struggle for survival. Hesse’s voice espouses realism on every page and you can almost taste the sand and dust on your own teeth.
“Dining Room Rules”,
We shake our napkins,
spread them in our time,
and turn over our glasses and plates,
exposing clean circles,
round comments
about what life would be like without dust.
This book does not provide background or history on any of the characters or events, as direct prose might require. Therefore, some middle graders may have trouble understanding the depth and meaning of some of the verses. However, Hesse’s words are so powerful that you can see and feel the history and in some cases the desperation in words like;
“When the summer wheat came ripe,
me too,
born on the kitchen floor. my crouch,
barefoot, bare bottom
on the swept boards
because that’s where Dad said it would be better.”
You meet families who migrate to California only to discover that things are just as bad there. There are not enough jobs. The amount of dust that Billie Jo and her family endure on a daily basis is overwhelming and mind-boggling. The dust clogs the tractor engine, ruins the wheat crop, gets into bed sheets and ruins Billie Jo’s prized piano. It seems true that Billie Joe and her family eat, sleep and drink dust.
black blankets
“We saw how the storm swallowed the light.
the sky turned blue
to black,
night fell in an instant
and the dust was upon us.
Each Hessian poem is a work of art that gives the people of Billie Jo’s small Okalahoma town depth and purpose.