Reading the 1998 Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is like sifting through fragile snapshots that complete a portrait of a family's desperate attempts to survive in the midst of a natural disaster. The novel traces events in the life of Billie Jo, a young girl growing up in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl from the winter of 1934 to autumn of 1935. The disappointment of failing crops, the discomfort of the invasive dust, the devastation of losing friends forced from their land are softened by simple hopes rooted in the dream that rain might fall tomorrow.
Relief never comes. Dust takes the tiny green apples off the branches of the frail trees. A fiery accident robs Billie Jo of her mother and leaves her injured and unable to play the piano she loves so much. She and her father live like ghosts in the shell of their home while dusty despair drifts against the windows and doors. Slowly time transforms tragedy into redemption, but not before Billie Jo leaves home and her father begins to dig his grave. In the end it is endurance that saves them.
Vibrant descriptions and spirited characters in Out of the Dust furnish an ideal opportunity for a class to study character development. Below we list a reading strategy and discussion questions for each season (chapter). You can use the discussion questions provided or allow the activities to drive discussion. We have found that reading the book chapter by chapter is sufficient to generate interesting topics for discussion. Allow a few days for exploring background material, but otherwise these activities constitute a unit that could be finished in about three weeks. An effective way to build prior knowledge is to invite students to view the film Surviving the Dust Bowl : The American Experience (PBS Home Video, 1998). This documentary provides a fine overview of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl disaster. My students were impressed with the film, and the images in it often reappeared as connections in their responses to the text.