Hesse, K. (1997) Out of the Dust. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Brief Annotation:
This novel, written in free verse, is the story of a 13/14 year old Billie Jo living in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. After Billie Jo’s pregnant mother dies, she must learn to live with her grieving father in order to survive the constant challenges of life in the dust.

Genre: Historical fiction, Poetry/free verse
Grade Level: 6-8
Readers who will like this: Readers who enjoy historical fiction. Readers who like free verse and poetry. Students learning about the Great Depression.
Response/Rating (1-4): **** I just re-read this book for the first time since middle school and finished the whole thing in a just a few hours. It’s a gripping story and told in a very honest, yet compelling voice. Readers can connect with Billie Jo as she deals with the very traumas that plague every young teen, in addition to her greater problems.

Reading Strategies Connection: Open-Mind Portraits (Tompkins, 77). Students can create an open mind portrait of Billie Jo, her father or any of the other characters in the book—with a picture of the character on one side of the page and a picture of the inside of his/her head with his/her thoughts on the other. This activity would help students process the characterization in the book, that is at times complicated by the free verse structure of the novel.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Can you imagine a world where everything, everyday, everywhere was always covered in dust? What would it be like to live there?