Out of the Dust Quotes

When Billie Jo is just fourteen she must endure heart-wrenching ordeals that no child should have to face. The quiet strength she displays while dealing with unspeakable loss is as surprising as it is inspiring.

On Sunday, winds come, bringing a red dust, like prairie fire, hot and peppery, searing the inside of my nose, the whites of my eyes. Roaring dust, turning the day from sunlight to midnight.

A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo’s life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can’t talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is not a true story. While it is a novel, however, and while its plot and characters are fictional, its portrayal of life during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s is historically accurate

And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands.To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. While others flee from the dust bowl, Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of Oklahoma -- and in the surprising landscape of her own heart.

Daddy’s too wrung out to help Billie Jo much, and there’s no one else to care. So Billie Joe must head herself - even if it means tearing up her roots, and leaving behind everything she’s ever known.

This story is set in the heart of the Great Depression. It chronicles Oklahoma’s staggering dust storms, and the environmental--and emotional--turmoil they leave in their path. An unforgettable tribute to hope and inner strength.

Quarter inch of rain is nothing to complain about. It’ll help the plants above ground, and start the new seeds growing. That quarter inch of rain did wonders for Ma, too, who is ripe as a melon these days. She has nothing to say to anyone anymore, except how she aches for rain. at breakfast, at dinner, all days, all night she aches for rain.

A boy came by the house today, he asked for food. He couldn’t pay anything, but Ma sent him down and gave him biscuits and milk. He offered to work for his meal. Ma sent him out to see Daddy. The boy and Daddy came back late in the afternoon. The boy walked two steps behind, in Daddy’s dust.

Lots of mothers wishing that these days, while their sons walk to California, where rain comes, and the color green doesn’t seem like such a miracle, and hope rises daily, like sap in a stem. And I think, some day I’m going to walk there too, through New Mexico and Arizona and Nevada. Some day, I’ll leave behind the wind, and the dust and walk my way West and make myself to home in that distant place of green vines and promise.