Out of the Dust

Title: Out of the Dust

Author: Karen Hesse

Publisher: Scholastic

Date: 1999

Number of pages: 240 pages

Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Historical fiction

Summary: Like the Oklahoma dust bowl from which she came, 14-year-old narrator Billie Jo writes in sparse, free-floating verse. In this compelling, immediate journal, Billie Jo reveals the grim domestic realities of living during the years of constant dust storms: That hopes--like the crops--blow away in the night like skittering tumbleweeds. That trucks, tractors, even Billie Jo's beloved piano, can suddenly be buried beneath drifts of dust. Perhaps swallowing all that grit is what gives Billie Jo--our strong, endearing, rough-cut heroine--the stoic courage to face the death of her mother after a hideous accident that also leaves her piano-playing hands in pain and permanently scarred. Meanwhile, Billie Jo's silent, windblown father is literally decaying with grief and skin cancer before her very eyes. When she decides to flee the lingering ghosts and dust of her homestead and jump a train west, she discovers a simple but profound truth about herself and her plight.

She hitchhikes on a train and a homeless and smelly man comes up to her. Billie Jo talks to him for a while and he shows her a picture of his family, before she falls asleep. She awakens to find that her food is gone, but the picture that the man had of his family is left its place. It is here she learns of her sense of belonging and all becomes clear to her.

After a week, Billie Jo returns home and convinces her father to go see a doctor. She calls him "Daddy" for the first time since the "accident" leading to her mother's death. The two even start to gain each other's trust again. She then meets Louise, a woman who stayed with her father while Billie was on the run. Louise,a woman who fell in the big hurt of her fathers eyes. Billie Jo respects Louise because Louise knows how to cope with "two red heads" and not "step on the toes of a ghost". Billie Jo and Louise just talk, and her father eventually ends up marrying Louise.

The novel ends with Billie Jo describing her life as not the best, but she is happy about the departure of the dust storms and her father being happy and alive. She just might stay out of the dust after all.

My Reaction: There are no tight, sentimental endings here--just a steady ember of hope that brightens Karen Hesse's exquisitely written and mournful tale. I was entertained and loved how the story developed as Billie Jo came to know her true colors and self, and accept and love who she is, her father and the new addition to their family.

Potential problems: The relationship between her father and her could pose as a distraction to youth. Gender stereotyping that she was thought to be a boy and turned out a girl. The remorse and saddness she feels and the way she displays her emotion by running away for a week, could be portrayed as acceptable behavior for grief.

My recommendation: I would assume this book shouldn't be in elementary school libraries, or even shared with our young children until about 8th grade. The morals behind the emotions and actions of the protagonist - suggest it is written for a more adult audience.