Thursday, September 17, 2015

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

If you read about the hardships Billie Jo experienced growing up during the Dust Bowl on the Oklahoma panhandle, please post your comment here:

17 comments:

  1. I thought that the book Out of the Dust was very sad and emotional because about halfway through the book there was an accident, that killed Billie Jo's mother. Billie Jo's father lift something burning on the stove. In an attempt to help she picked it up burning her hands and then threw it out the door where her mom happened to be standing. Her mom caught on fire and suffered from severe burns up and down her body. Her mother had been very pregnant with Billie Jo's little brother and her mother died shortly after the burning giving birth to the little boy who then died hours later. In the fire accident Billie Jo's hands had been badly burned. Billie Jo was a piano player and could no longer play without her hands being in excruciating pain. So she could no longer play. The loss of playing the piano, her mother, and her younger brother was very big for her father and her. Her father began to drink and her and her father no longer talked. This accident helped her grow up. Billie Jo began to take on many responsibilities that had once been her mothers. She would clean the house and keep the dust out. She had to keep up with work at home as well as school.

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  2. I thought that the book Out of the Dust was very sad and emotional because about halfway through the book there was an accident, that killed Billie Jo's mother. Billie Jo's father lift something burning on the stove. In an attempt to help she picked it up burning her hands and then threw it out the door where her mom happened to be standing. Her mom caught on fire and suffered from severe burns up and down her body. Her mother had been very pregnant with Billie Jo's little brother and her mother died shortly after the burning giving birth to the little boy who then died hours later. In the fire accident Billie Jo's hands had been badly burned. Billie Jo was a piano player and could no longer play without her hands being in excruciating pain. So she could no longer play. The loss of playing the piano, her mother, and her younger brother was very big for her father and her. Her father began to drink and her and her father no longer talked. This accident helped her grow up. Billie Jo began to take on many responsibilities that had once been her mothers. She would clean the house and keep the dust out. She had to keep up with work at home as well as school.

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  3. One major thing I noticed about Out of the Dust was how the author Karen Hesse used symbols. A major symbol was Billie Jo's mother's apple tree. About a month before Billie Jo's mom died, the apple tree is blossoming and Billie Jo is really excited to finally have apples to eat, since she is living during the Dust Bowl. So, fresh fruit doesn't survive. I think the apple tree is a symbol of Billie Jo's mother, because her mom is pregnant at the same time the tree is blooming. Then, after Billie's mom is badly burned, Billie Jo looks outside again to see that grasshoppers had eaten most of the flowers on the tree. All hopes of fresh apples were gone, and Billie Jo's mom eventually died, along with baby Franklin, who was represented by the blooms. The other major symbol of Out of the Dust was Billie Jo's old piano. Because of the fire that hurt her mom, Billie's hands were burned and she can't play piano. So, whenever Billie sees the piano, she will remember not only the abrupt change her life went through when she was burned, but also her mom since the piano belonged to her. The piano definitely represented all the change in Billie Jo's life.

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  5. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse was a real eye opener for me. When Billie Jo's father started to drink, that was her oppertunity to grow up. She has to learn how to thrive without her mother and father, and also how to keep in school. And also, when her father placed the kerosene next to the burning pan, I could tell that somehting bad was going to happen, but I did not expect anyone to die because of it.

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  6. I thought that Out of the Dust showed themes like responsibility and how you need to take on responsibility as you grow up. Billie Jo was a girl living in the Dust Bowl with a pregnant mother and a father who occasionally went out and drank. One day Billie Jo's father left a gallon of kerosene next to the stove and it eventually caught on fire. In an attempt to save their only good cooking pan from the fire, Billie Jo through it out the doorway. This caused her mother to catch on fire and get very badly burned. Also Billie Jo burnt her hands very badly which made it so she could no longer play the piano, which was very hard to let go because she had such great talent. After giving birth to Billie Jo's brother Franklin, her mother died. Sadly, hours later her brother Franklin also died. These were big changes in Billie Jo's life and she had to take on the responsibility of some of her mother's roles. She also had to take on some of her father's roles because he had started drinking almost every night and the two of them barely talked. Billie Jo grew up very much after these terrible changes in her life.

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  7. I thought the book out of the dust was very good but also a sad book. I did not like this book that much because i don't like books about sad things or people with sad lives. During this book Billie Jo's mother died and so did the baby she had in her. The death of Billie Jo's mom was partly Billie Jo's part which made the book even more sad. I felt bad for Billie Jo because at the funeral some people said it was her fault that her mom died. Her mom died because her dad left kerosene next to a stove and it caught on fire. Billie Jo and her mom ran out of the house but then Billie Jo went back in to get the bucket of kerosene and dump it outside. But Billie Jo did not know her mother was coming in after her so she dumped it on her mother. Eventually the mother died. But since Billie Jo held the bucket which was really hot she burnt her hands. Billie Jo loved to play the piano but she couldn't anymore because of her burnt hands. This book was full of bad things happening because there were a lot of dust storms too. This book was written really well but i still did not like it that much

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    1. I respect that you don't want to read such a heartbreaking sad book as this. Unfortunately, some of the best books out there are about tragedy. Maybe that is how people learn to get through the hard things in life...by writing about them and reading how others learned to fact them and continue on.

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  8. I loved the poem aspect of this book. Everything felt a lot more meaningful when it was written in poem, like there wasn't an overwhelming amount of description, but just enough to get you to understand what was happening. I also liked learning about Billie Jo's relationship with her father, and how he slowly forgave her after the incident with her mother. I still don't think I have a clear visual of how Billie Jo's hands actually looked, so I was kind of confused when she talked about them. I also liked how she kept bringing up the phrase "out of the dust" because it perfectly symbolized how she had this need to leave Oklahoma.

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  9. This saddening yet inspiring book called, "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse seemed so real as if Billy joe were me. I felt every emotion Karen Hesse added into this book, the happy ones, the sad ones, even the proud ones when Billy Joe plays the piano. Even though I had very strong and powerful feelings throughout reading this book, it wasn't my favorite read. Some parts became quite boring, and I began to lost interest during the book. However, finishing it I now appreciate reading it. Dust storms were always something that I thought were fiction. Just the thought that they are real, frightens me. Living without a Mother, just because it was all my fault, would puncture a hole in my heart. Feeling pain every morning when I would wake up, regretting every second of my existence. When I thought about everything Billy Joe has been through, and I pictured in my mind how I would interpret it. I now understand how strong Billy Joe is, how her endurance is pushing me to become a stronger human being. Having the opportunity of taking a glimpse inside the perspective of a young brave soul just by reading this book, is empowering to my mind.

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  10. Out of the Dust really got me thinking about women's rights and how far we have come from back then. Now we can do almost everything men can, although there are still stereotypes about women like they work in the kitchen all day and that all of their favorite colors are pink. I think Muriel put across a strong message that not all girls cook for their husbands and stay at home all day. Overall, Out of the Dust made me realize how underestimated and woman were.

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  11. Out of the Dust was a powerful book. It brought out many emotions, not only sadness but also ( for me) indescribable feelings for Billie Jo when her mother died, and her father was drinking. One of my favorite parts of the book was towards the end when Billie Jo decided that the women her father had come over a lot wasn't so bad, she grew to like her, and that mood showed me that yes, Billie Jo was still sad about her mother and baby brother, but also that she accepted what was going to happen. Things might not be able to turn out exactly how you want them too, but they can turn out pretty good. I can't even begin to imagine how Billie Jo must have felt. First she looses her mom and brother, than her father kind of leaves her for a while. I know that this time must have been hard on the father, but I feel that he should have stayed by Billie Jo's side , and together they could have helped each other through the hard times. It helps me too appreciate even more than I already do, the friends and family that I have. This was a strong book that pulled you in and helped you experience so many emotions. Overall I thought it was a pretty good book.

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  12. Out of the Dust for me was a very interesting book. I didn't like it that much because the book although there were some nice parts like when she was playing the piano and thinking of her mother there were also some disturbing parts in it .One scene in the book where I thought it was pretty sad and disturbing is when Billie Jo's dad left the pail to burn Billie Jo tried to help and she through it out the door not knowing her pregnant mother was standing there who then got badly burned . Finally the day came and Billie Jo's mother passed away while giving birth to the new baby boy. Its sad to think about that thinking that they tried there best to help her and it was really not worth fighting for because in the end in a place like that there is no way to get help. Also as badly burned as her mother was Billie Jo was also burned all over the hands.
    This part of the book is very sad but as you go on in the book you realize that that's not the only sad thing that happens to Billie Jo's family. Throughout the book I felt very badly for her and could never imagine what she went through . I felt may different emotions while reading this book but it was more of a sad inspiring story to me than a interesting one .

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  13. I personally did not like this book, it was just to depressing at times where I couldn't stand it. This is just my opinion but I absolutely thought a bunch of times it got really boring. I am not saying it isn't a powerful book because it has a lot of meaning to it, the problem was I just couldn't grab a hold of that feeling or powerfulness. When her mother died and her brother that just always got me into a bad mood after because Billie Jo was always talking about it and I just couldn't stand it. It got me thinking on what it would feel like if I lost my mother and then my dad started to drink. I don't like to think about that because it just makes me sad. This book was definitely not grabbing me in the beginning because of all the despair but towards the end it was grabbing me because everything was sort of coming around. That is how I felt about this book.

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