Behind the Scenes: Writing Out of the Dust

In 1993, Karen Hesse and her friend Liza Ketchum took a car trip to Colorado. On the way there, they traveled through Kansas. Hesse had never been to this part of the United States before. Seeing the Great Plains for the first time was an amazing experience.

Three years later, Hesse’s memories of the Plains found a place in her writing. While working on her picture book, Come On Rain, she shared the text with her writing group and asked them what they thought. The three authors who make up her writing group spoke honestly. They didn’t understand why the character in her book wanted rain so much.

“I started thinking about times in this country when people really wanted it to rain. So I came back to the Dust Bowl,” recalls Hesse. “Being the writer I am, when I started thinking about the Dust Bowl, I started researching. I became so fascinated by that period of history and the people living then that I put the picture book aside and began writing Out of the Dust.”

Hesse researched and researched. She wanted to make sure she had all the details just right. She read books about wheat farming. She read books about dust. She even contacted the Oklahoma Historical Society for help. Hesse’s most useful discovery was the Boise City News, a newspaper published in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the 1930s.

As Hesse pored over the issues of the Boise City News, she was surprised by what she found. “The dust storms were only minor articles — what was going on there was life! There were concerts and plays and schools. . . . So I made Billie Jo connected to the arts, because I wanted the reader to understand that even if people were struggling under such harsh circumstances, they would find a way to keep joy in their lives.”

Hesse admits she had personal reasons for making Billie Jo a poet and pianist as well. “I’m both a poet and a musician — although I’m not very good at either, I’m afraid!” Hesse enjoys music so much that she says that if she weren’t a writer, she’d be a musician. She’d love to conduct beautiful symphonies.

Hesse gave Billie Jo’s character a love of music, but she made her face tragedy, too. She is often asked whether the accident in Out of the Dust could have actually taken place. Could someone really confuse kerosene and water? “Yes,” Hesse says. “It happened often. I based the accident on a series of articles appearing in the 1934 Boise City News. That particular family tragedy planted the seed for Out of the Dust, as much as the dust storms did.”

Was all of the research and hard work worth it? You bet. Out of the Dust won many awards, including the Newbery Medal. It also helped make Karen Hesse a famous writer. But don’t look for a sequel. Hesse has been asked to write sequels to many of her books, but has always said no. She finds creating brand-new characters and fresh stories more interesting.

Quote sources: “Karen Hesse 1998 Newbery Speech for Out of the Dust,” www.scholastic. com / “Karen Hesse’s Interview Transcript,” www.scholastic.com.