Out of the Dust

This is a novel in verse for young adults by Karen Hesse. It’s only the second novel in verse for YA that I’ve come across, and interestingly enough this is also historical fiction. It’s set during the thirties when half of America turned to dust and blew away, and it’s written in free verse, through the eyes of a young girl who endures some pretty horrific stuff. Considering the media, it’s an easily followed story-line, well-told.

An aspiring pianist, the young girl loses her mother and unborn brother when there’s an accident involving kerosene. She also damages her hands. At the same time poverty is overtaking their rural community because of the world-wide depression and the long-term degradation of the land. It’s a simply structured story – hopefulness followed by hopelessness followed by new hope once again. The resolution is not too easy and yet it does provide closure to a fairly horrific story.

The use of verse (while innovative) does tend to distance the reader from the action. Verse novels are a difficult thing because generally what a novel is trying to do is different from a poem. It’s fairly effective, but it’s not a genre that’s going to take off any time soon.