Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, 1997

Brief annotation:

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.

Themes include the Great Depression, family, friendship, the dust bowl and poetry.

This book really personalizes the Great Depression and particularly the dust bowl. It can be used in the history classroom or, since it is written in free verse, a poetry unit in an English or reading class.

- John Newbery Medal, 1998
- Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 1998