Out of the Dust

Review Two

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. New York: Scholastic Press, 1997. Print.

Annotation: The American Dust Bowl, Personified: One Family's Story of Perseverance.




Justification for Nomination: Out of the Dust chronicles a two-year span from 1934 to 1935 in a dusty Oklahoma town, affected by the Great Depression. Written from the perspective a 14 year-old girl, experiences living in the vein of Coming of Age are strongly present. The short, dense poems are exquisitely vivid. Hesse create a powerful portrait of one family's struggle for survival during a trying period of American history.

Presented in first-person, the young, female coming of age story facilitates many significant aspects of young adult developmental issues. From the loss of innocence, to simple day-to-day growing pains and efforts to assert an adult identity are especially resonant with a young adult audience.

Through her wonderfully nuanced craft, Hesse succeeds in capturing a range of intimate experiences and emotions endured by 14 year-old Billie Jo and her small family. The dry, desolate landscape of middle-America is juxtaposed with ordinary day-to-day moments which, in their distilled presentation become magical.

The language, although dense at times, is quite accessible, captivating and tactfully distills the story to its essence.

Out of the Dust is a wonderful text to introduce young adult readers to poetry and the history of the American Dust Bowl. The novel could work well in a high school history class as companion to the more dense nature of history textbooks. Although the story is definitely pinned in a specific time in American history, the coming of age themes addressed in the novel are classically resonant with young adult readers making a strong candidate for a Mock Printz Award.

Genre: Verse Novel; Newberry Award recipient 1998