A first-time read for me Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse was an exciting read which I finished in just a few hours. I'm not sure why I'd never read it before, perhaps because it is written in the intimidating blank verse style. The style actually lends a realism to this work that I feel could not have been captured with the usual prose.
I felt myself relating not just to Billie Jo, the protagonist, but to the entire community. I remember the drought years of my early teens, but what we feared then was not dust, it was ash. The years without rain seemed to stretch on, I think time moves slower in a drought. I remember praying for rain in church and at school. Once I was outside during a brief rain but my mother called me back in and began cleaning my brother and I immediately. Just as Billie Jo described the rain being full of dust, our rain was full of black, sticky ash.
It is only now, talking with friends that we can realize that brown is not the natural color of the landscape, that green can last and often does all summer. For me the book was relatable in a very personal way, which is something all great literature strives for.
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