From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 09:56:25 -0600

Brenda, thanks for giving us the background on the development of "Out of the Dust." I find it intriguing that Karen Hesse initially described it as "a book about soil erosion" -- now we know why the physical landscape figures so prominently in the novel!

I appreciated your insights into the author's choice to use "pared down, poetic language." Certainly the style is one of the most distinctive features of the book, as Karen Wendt has eloquently pointed out in her message dated 2-4?.

Since the poetic style is so powerful, can you say anything more about it from you point of view as editor? Did this voice come out of Billie Jo from the beginning or is it something Karen Hesse came to later on, in the midst of writing the book?

Overall, Karen Hesse stands out as an author who rarely uses the same writing style twice, so I'm wondering at what point she finds the
"right" style for a book.

Thanks again, Brenda, for being so willing to answer our questions.

Kathleen T. Horning (horning at facstaff.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison





Thank you, KT and Ginny, for asking me to talk about Karen Hesse's OUT OF THE DUST. It's a real privilege to be part of this discussion group.


"I'm writing a book about soil erosion." These were Karen's exact words when I asked her, about two years ago, what she was working on after MUSIC OF DOLPHINS. As an editor, you don't really want to hear that your star fiction writer is going to deliver a manuscript about TOPSOIL
-- but as an editor you want to trust your writer. And since Karen had prefaced MUSIC OF DOLPHINS as a book about "speech development," I knew that topsoil in her hands would not be a disappointment.

How did she get the idea? Karen has always felt keenly humankind's joint responsibility to preserve the land. She explored that theme somewhat in PHOENIX RISING, but in OUT OF THE DUST it is the driving force of the book. She spent just a little time in Oklahoma on a trip across country with a friend, and felt a visceral connection to the land. That connection, combined with an interest in weather and a concern for the environment, resulted in OUT OF THE DUST.

Karen loves research. Her research for DUST led her to the archives of the local paper in Boise City, OK, and to the OK Historical Society.
*Every weather detail in the book is historically correct;* so whenever I suggested there was just *too* much grit or *too* many dust storms (in the manuscript), she pointed out that that's what actually occurred, and as an historical novel, she had to follow history. The land -- the dust
-- became a character.

The pared down, poetic language came from her belief that in times of such hardship, there is no room for expansion. One's experience, one's feelings are compressed -- as Billie Jo's are compressed in the book. And Karen was a poet before she was a fiction writer, so this is a form she felt she could explore.

What's also interesting to me is that Karen manages to include in the book *why* the drought was so devastating ("The Path to Our Sorrow") and how, at the time, there was discussion about diversification of crops
("Finding a Way"). In fact, when I questioned the word
"diversification," Karen confirmed that it was a word in use at the time
(and that kids would be able to figure it out in context).

There's a lot more to say, but I'll send this off now. And for those who have not yet used it with children, we just got a wonderful letter here from a 12-year-old girl *who had never completed a book* until she read OUT OF THE DUST. The short-poem format was an invitation to her, not a hindrance.

Thanks, all of you, whether you love this book or not -- all of us in the children's book world appreciate your support, your interest, and your dedication to getting books to children.

Brenda Bowen Scholastic Press
Received on Thu 05 Feb 1998 09:56:25 AM CST