Lonely times.....real times?

Describe a time in your life when you felt like you needed to talk and you did not have anyone to listen to you.  What were some of your feelings?  What would you suggest to someone who might be in a similar situation as you?

Friendships during difficult times.....

If you were Billie Jo's friend, what would you do once you learned of the accident?  Who are Billie Jo's friends?

Improving existing realtionships.....

Describe Billie Jo's relationship with her father.  Say you were Billie Jo.......if you were in her position, what do you think you would have done to improve your relationship with your father? Think deeply and straight from the heart....

Making connections to your life....

Can you think of a time in your life when you felt as alone as Billie Jo did after the accident?  What did you do?  What were some of the feelings that you went through?  How does your feelings and that of Billie Jo's compare?

Introduction

Out of the Dust is a series of free verse poems written by Karen Hesse.  Billie Jo relates the trials and struggles of growing up on a wheat farm in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression.  This touching novel conveys the heat, dust and wind of Oklahoma that tore at the farmland and hearts of the people.