Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Did I ever mention the amazing book sale I stumbled upon? I found this book at that magnificent book sale in the 'Ten books for R5' section. Yes. There is no typo there. I really spent a whopping 50c on this. (All the other books were R5 a book - and I mean ALL the other books! :D ) The other thing that drew me to this book (because at that price I was already very tempted) was the way in which it is written. It is written as separate poems, which together, make the whole story. I have read epic poems (Paradise Lost comes to mind first), but never something like this. For that price, I was prepared to give it a go.

Billie Jo is living in The Dust Bowl in America during the depression. Her father is a wheat farmer, and with the drought and dust (and no, we are not talking about the bit that one tackles when cleaning the house, this is the type or dust that can cover and hide your house), times are hard. And just when things are hard - they get worse.

While I do not feel able to judge the quality of the poetry, I am quite confident that I can make a fair appraisal of the story. I found this very touching. Maybe that was a result of the poetry. There were no unnecessary frills and long passages of description which drowned out the bare bones of the story. The story itself was devastating in places, but ended with a tone of hope.

I found the history of the Dust Bowl during the depression interesting. It is something I had never heard about. (If you want to know why, take a look at the unit of currency my country uses.) The imagery of the dust was vivid, and felt smothering, adding to the feeling the narrator was experiencing.

I gave this 4 stars because I felt touched by this book. I could relate to Billie Jo wanting to leave and I could relate to.... well... that would be a spoiler.