# Out of the Dust

**Author:** Karen Hesse
**Lexile:** 740L
**Grade range:** Grades 5–8
**Age range:** 10–14
**First published:** 1997
**Page count:** 240
**Genre:** Middle Grade Verse Novel / Historical Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780590371254`
**ISBN-10:** `0590371258`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/out-of-the-dust
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Billie Jo, a 14-year-old in Depression-era Oklahoma, narrates her family's struggle through the Dust Bowl and the aftermath of a kerosene fire. Hesse's 1998 Newbery Medal winner is one of the most-assigned verse novels for the upper-elementary-to-middle transition.

## Themes

- Great Depression
- Dust Bowl
- grief and loss
- rural Oklahoma
- mother-daughter relationship
- verse narrative

## Content notes

- death of parent
- death of infant
- fire injury
- depression / grief

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 12+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 6th grade — [source: CCSS ELA grades 6-8 verse novel Newbery Medal 1998](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 7th grade — [source: CCSS ELA grades 6-8 Great Depression literature](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 7th grade · Texas — [source: TEKS grade 7 — Dust Bowl unit pairing](https://tea.texas.gov/)
- **recommended** · 8th grade — [source: CCSS ELA grades 6-8 verse novel exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)

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