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| Title: Out of the Dust |
| Author: Karen Hesse |
Reviewed
by :
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| Reviewer: Stephanie A. '08 Deep within the Oklahoma dust lives
Billie Jo, a 14 year old, long legged girl who lovesto play the piano. One day Billie Jo’s
mom is in the kitchen when it is set on fire! Father is out in the fields and doesn't get
harmed, but Billie Jo’s hands get burned badly. As for her mother, she dies a few
days later.
Will Billie Jo ever get to know her father? Will the dust storms
ever stop, so that their farm can survive? And will Billie Jo’s scarred hands ever
again play the piano she loves?
Fall 2000 |
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| Reviewer: Emily K. '08 Out
Of The Dust is a story about a young girl named, Billy Jo who lives with her family in
Oklahoma. Not only do they need to fight the hardships of the land, but also Bill Jo and
her father have to overcome the tragic accident that scarred both of their lives forever.
Billie Jo’s mother is badly burned and about a month later gives birth to her son,
but neither survives. Billy Jo is also badly burned on her hands during the accident.
Billy Jo is then left with her father. While Billy Jo has never been close to her
father, this just deepens the gap between them. Also, due to Billy Jo’s injuries, she
is unable to play the piano, which had been a major focus of her life. Billy Jo feels
helpless at the loss of her mother and the inability to do the one thing she likes the
best. She wants to leave the home she now feels strange in and the devastating land that
ruined so many lives of the people that lived there. She does leave one day only to find
things are not any better elsewhere. Upon Billy Jo’s return, life changes and things
have a different perspective.
Fall 2000 |
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| Reviewer: Meredith D. '06 Out of the Dust is a great book written from the view of a fourteen
year old girl, Billy Jo, who was suffering in the Mighty Dust Storm in 1934 and ‘35.
Her family consisted of her father, and her pregnant mother. Billy Jo, by accident, burned
her mother badly. While trying to save her mother from worse injuries, she burnt herself
badly on her hands. Not long after, her mother died while delivering her baby brother. Her
brother, Franklin, also died. Out of the Dust tells how courageous many
people were to survive through the storms.
1/4/99 |
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Reviewer: Nate M. '06
Out of the Dust takes place in Oklahoma in the 1930’s, the Dust
Bowl, where dust storms dried everything out. The book is about Billie Jo and her family
trying to survive the Dust Bowl. Billie Jo’s father can’t grow his crops, so
their family is losing money. They run into many other problems as they struggle to
survive. The book is very descriptive and easy to read
because it is written in free-verse poems.
11/30/98 |
5th Grade Super Readers
Director: Betty
Grant - Lower School Reading Specialist
Web Site - Andrea Owens
Germantown Academy
Super Readers | Lower School | GAnet
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