Parents' Guide to

Out of the Dust

By Megan McDonald, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

A penetrating look at a poor child's life.

Book Karen Hesse Historical Fiction 1997
Out of the Dust Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

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age 14+

Based on 10 parent reviews

Kathryn G.
Kathryn G. Adult
April 29, 2019
age 18+

Horrifying!

A beautifully written story but with nightmarish details. The main character's pregnant mother is horrifically burned and dies after days of writhing and moaning in pain, in which her husband eventually abandons her to drink and she gives birth to a dead baby while her daughter watches. This is all described in vivid detail. The story is very depressing. My classmates and I were required to read this in college, and some of us struggled with depression or nightmares for a few days after reading this...even as 20-something-year-old college students. I would exercise great caution in allowing children to read this. I'm not sensitive and I like depressing stories, but I never personally want to open up this book again.

This title has:

Too much violence
CSMContentDefault
CSMContentDefault Adult
November 18, 2018
age 10+

Left me depressed

I read this book as a nine or ten year old and the book was actually interesting and good until the accident part and after the burning I was fustrated, sad and overall depressed. Plus the book was just boring to me.Now I am a person who LOVES distoptian novels but this book was not somthing that I personally enjoyed.I have also read amazon reviews of a 4th grader kid having nightmares because of this book.Overall I would find a better book

This title has:

Too much violence
See all 10 parent reviews

What's the Story?

A penetrating, gut-wrenching look at the seasons of discontent in Billie Jo's year, growing up in the wind, dust, drought, and heat of Dust Bowl-era Oklahoma. Billie Jo's is a faraway voice with immediate appeal in this foreboding, clenched fist of a novel. An umbrella of emotion weighs heavily over each sad event, true to the austere historical setting.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (10 ):
Kids say (32 ):

Billie Jo describes her desolate internal and external landscape with a searing, brutal honesty. She narrates, in unfolding glimpses of story, a tale of death, destruction, dust, and the search for redemption that's written in the first-person, poetic, stanza form of Virginia Euwer Wolff's Make Lemonade. With uncompromising realism, the author shows life in the Dust Bowl taking one sad turn after another for this "redheaded, freckle-faced, narrow-hipped girl with a fondness for apples and a hunger for playing fierce piano."

The increasingly doleful progression of events hammers at the reader, nearly overwhelming the faint light of hope that appears at last in the form of a journey, a surrogate mother, and the promise of music that comes from the healing of Billie Jo's hands as well as heart.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the Dust Bowl in a historical context, focusing on the effect the severe storms had on the livelihood of working families. If you and your family were faced with the same conditions, do you think you could survive? Did hardship bring Billie Jo's family closer together -- or tear them farther apart? How did Billie Jo's relationship with her father change in the wake of her mother's death?

Book Details

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