Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
I really enjoyed this novel as a means in which young students can
understand the grim history of the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression.
While many written histories discuss the suffering of farmers that had lost
their crops in the Great Depression, Billie Jo brings a young adult perspective
to suffering and poverty in the Dust Bowl. Also, Hesse’s use of a free verse
provides an effective way in which a young adult could communicate in a diary
format. In the classroom, the stanza form simplifies the dark emotions that are
represented in Billie Jo’s own education and through her mother’s discipline: I
do as she says. I go to school,/ and in the afternoons I come home,…and all the
while I glare at Ma’s back with a scowl/foul as maggoty stew (Hesse, 1997,
p.29). This type free style verse made
an impact on me because of the honesty and clarity of Billie Jo’s writing. More
so, it does not hide emotions that many young people feel, especially in having
to do their homework. Personally, I enjoyed the realistic portrayal of young
girls struggles, which I feel that some of the students can learn the
historical and personal realities of life in the Dust Bowl. More profoundly,
Billie Jo’s tragic loss of her mother and father can also teach young people
resilience and self-reliance. I liked this book and I would highly recommend
this book to be used in classrooms for young adult readers.
Would you use this book with your own students? What did you learn about American history and life in the 1930s? What can young people learn about poverty and life during the Great Depression from reading this particular story? Would your students have difficulty with this vocabulary and with this idea of free verse? Have you ever thought of using a story such as this in conjunction with a history teacher who is doing a unit on the United States in the 1930s? Glad you enjoyed this particular book. Hesse is an outstanding author.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this chapter because of the success of Billy Jo and the other students to receive such a high score throughout the entire state of Oklahoma. This part of the book really gives me hope as a teacher because of the dire poverty the students endured, and yet they overachieved. This type of academic success tells me that it is not necessarily the financial funding of a school system that makes great students, it is the excellence of the teacher that counts. I often feel dismayed by the lack of funding and educational resources that teachers face in the 2000s, but this historical example really inspired me about the value of a good teacher. I believe that young people can learn from Billy Jo and the her fellow students that poverty is no excuse for not doing well in school. In other words, poverty does not always correlate with poor educational standards. I would certainly enjoy having a history teacher work in conjunction with Hesse’s novel within my classroom. If I was impressed by the ability of children to outscore the rest of state during extreme poverty, a history teacher might further inspire students to understand the power of reading and historical education. This chapter was heart breaking and beautiful to me as a teacher. To know that these extremely poor students excelled gives hope to those teaching young people to read in the classroom.
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