| Wonderful book; a treasure | | | | the poor little boy, and the missing Aunt (father's |
| I would like to tell you about my desire to review a | | | | sister). I can think of so many times of blame in my |
| book that has been reviewed time and again, most | | | | day, and in my life. I recall a blame where a man I |
| likely. I am sure it will be reviewed by others as | | | | was visiting in a rest home called Pleasant Care, died. |
| many people have noted it. This is a little about the | | | | I blamed the facility, I blamed his family for leaving |
| small hardback: Here on the pages of the poetic "Out | | | | him alone, and I blamed the doctors who made a |
| of the Dust: A Novel" are found the words to savor | | | | decision to pull the plug at his family's request. Yet |
| about our willing struggle to live within the travails | | | | somehow in this story about her brother being |
| that we encounter, even the most horrible. The gift | | | | fetched by her father's sister, there is a sense of |
| of heart and hope, by daily endurance, and the simple | | | | being in touch, and being loved. I sense that in this |
| recognition of our immediate lives lived within the | | | | deep conversation that fourteen year old Billie Jo is |
| labour of life is written as a statement of love about | | | | holding, there is a conversation she is making with us |
| Bill Jo, who is a 14 year old girl. This is a children's | | | | and God that we continue to hold with ourselves, |
| book, and the writer is Karen Hesse (a poet, truly). | | | | through friends, throughout our lives. |
| There are so many good things about this book, | | | | This kind of desire to remain in joy, to find that we |
| including the way the book is divided into sections, | | | | can weep in sorrow and continue in joy in our lives is |
| like separate poems. These poems read like prose, | | | | a remarkable thing about life. Billie Jo lets nothing |
| and they go together to tell a story. My desire | | | | separate her from God, not dust storms, not the |
| concerns the subject of blame. On page 70 there is a | | | | silence of her father, not the tragedy of the accident |
| part in the book about the life of the girl who is the | | | | that caused her mother's death. I think about this |
| voice of this novel. She tells about herself, in a way | | | | book, and I believe that you will find it something |
| that I remember my own mother telling me about | | | | worth reading. Purchase this book, if you will, and you |
| herself. I would like to remember many of the things | | | | will discover on its pages a rich consortium of faith, |
| that my mother and father told me about when I | | | | and living in a way that is both simple and yet at the |
| was young. Some of these things like the blame in | | | | same time filled with the complexity of the fabric |
| their lives, the story of their parents, and the story | | | | that makes up our lives every day. There is a desire |
| of the parents of their parents are things of | | | | within us all to be thankful about living, and my desire |
| remembrance that I ponder now that I am older. | | | | is to introduce you to a small book that has a prize |
| These treasured and important memories make up a | | | | medal on the cover that says it was given to the |
| weaving that is the fabric of our conception of the | | | | writer "for the most distinguished contribution to |
| way we can and will live in the world. This book of | | | | American literature for children." Certainly you will find, |
| poetic history does this for the reader. | | | | as have I, that there is so much merit in this slim |
| Here is what Karen Hesse writes about in the poem | | | | volume that you will find it one of the treasures that |
| "Blame." She says, or rather the girl who is telling the | | | | you want to give some special award of your own. |
| story to us says: | | | | Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, a novel, is a book |
| "My father's sister came to fetch my brother,even | | | | of our desire to live in this world. How brand new the |
| as Ma's body cooled. | | | | world is every day, and what a wonderful gift of |
| She came to bring my brother back to Lubbockto | | | | desire is offered on the pages of this book including |
| raise as her own,but my brother died before Aunt | | | | subjects like "Birth" ("One morning when I arrive at |
| Ellis got here. | | | | school/Miss Freeland says to keep the kids out,/that |
| She wouldn't even hold his little body. | | | | the baby is coming..."), "Dust Storm" ("I kept along. I |
| She barely noticed me. | | | | know that there were others/on the road,/from time |
| As soon as she found my brother dead,she | | | | to time I'd hear someone cry out..." and "Midnight |
| Had a talk with my father. | | | | Truth" ("I am so filled with bitterness..." |
| Then she turned around | | | | When I say this is a children's book, I mean that it is |
| And headed back to Lubbock." | | | | a book about what it is to be a child. That is all of |
| My desire to reflect on the joy that this tells me | | | | my desire, to tell you that this book helps one to |
| about is a mystery to me, because this poem is so | | | | continue on in a journey of life as a child or as an |
| sad. You would think that there is just the tears, and | | | | adult. |