Out Of The Dust Literary Analysis

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is a historical fiction book about a little girl named Billie Joe that lives during the Dirty Thirties or the Dust Bowl as many people call it. A historical fiction book is defined as a made-up story that is set in the past, but takes place during an actual even that has happened. Historical fiction has many benefits for children such as teaching historical events, allows children to develop and makes d understanding about the past and how to learn from things that have taken place in the past, makes history more relatable to children, and helps to explain why some events occurred or people behaved in a certain way. I believe that historical fiction is a very important genre of book because it allows children to learn about history in a fun and laid back way. It is very difficult to ask a child to read a text book and make sense of it and truly comprehend what happened. Giving them a historical fiction book takes that pressure away and makes it more relatable and enjoyable for children to read and learn. …show more content…
There are so many factual points that are made within this fictional book. The first history lesson that is shown is the little girl on the cover of the book is real, she was an actual person who lived during the Dust Bowl. Her name wasn’t Billy Joe, but she did actually live and go through the hardships of the 1930’s. On page 170 in the book, Billy Joe’s journal entry talks about a man named James Kingsbury who came to Joyce City wanting to take photos of the drought and the dust storms this was the man who took a bunch of the pictures from the dust