Review-Out of the Dust by Karen Hessee

I honestly don't know how to review this book. If I try I think I'll be able capture the essence of the book, but I'll try my best anyway.

This is a free verse novel set in Oklahoma, set a little after the Great Depression. It starts in the winter of 1934 and ends December 1935. It's told form the point of view of 14-year-old Billie Jo Kelby. We learn about her mother, who dies in a tragic accident. Her father, who becomes a shell of a man after his wife's death, but mostly we learn Billie Jo and how hard it was to live during this time. Billie Jo nothing more than to get out of Oklahoma, to have another life, a better life.


Karen Hesse is incredibly talented. I give it

I read this book in 5th grade and loved it. I always remembered this book, and not to long ago I decided to re-read it. But then I realized I forgot who wrote it and the title! I was kind of mad cause it was always on the tip of my tongue and I remembered so much about it and could have drawn the cover, but as luck would have it I saw it on my recommendations from Borders and got it that day. I would recommend this book to anyone. Especially if you like books that give you a glimpse of what life was like in another time. I asked my father how close it was to what it was like back then and he said it seemed right. (My dad wasn't alive during this time but born about 5 years after. He only based that on what his parents told him and what he learned in school)