History Literature / OutOfTheDust

* GossipyHens: [[spoiler: After her dead baby brother is taken away to be buried, Billy Jo overhears two women mentioning how they were shocked that Billy Jo threw the pail. Billy Jo herself is furious and anguished that they don't mention the part where her father left a pail of kerosene out or the fact that he left her alone to go get drunk, but rather they focus solely on what Billie Jo did.]]

* GossipyHens: [[spoiler: After her dead baby brother is taken away to be buried, Billy Jo overhears two women mentioning how they were shocked that Billy Jo threw the pail. Billy Jo herself is furious and anguished over the fact that they didn’t hear how it was her father’s fault for leaving a pail of kerosene out or that it was all an accident, but only that a pregnant mother was killed by her daughter.]]

** Billie Jo throws the pail of burning kerosene out the door just as Ma is coming back up the path, causing burning kerosene to splash on her clothes. The resulting incident leaves Ma horribly burned and near death, and Billie Jo gets third-degree burns on her hands trying to save her.

* TeacherStudentRomance: A rare example between adults. [[spoiler:After Billie Jo's father begins going to night school, he ends up falling for his teacher Louise. The book ends with them in a relationship.]]

* TalentContest: Billie enters one about halfway through the book; she wins second-place and earns [[InflationNegation two dollars.]]

** Ma runs out of the house to get Daddy. Billie Jo starts to follow her, but decides it's a bad idea to leave a burning pail of kerosene in the house.

-->[''I got burned bad''.

* GossipyHens: [[spoiler: After her dead baby brother is taken away to be buried, Billy Jo overhears two women mentioning how they were shocked that Billy Jo threw the pail. Billy Jo herself is furious and anguished over the fact that they didn’t hear how it was her husband’s fault for leaving a pail of kerosene out or that it was all an accident, but only that a pregnant was killed by her daughter.]]

* GossipingHens: [[spoiler: After her dead baby brother is taken away to be buried, Billy Jo overhears two women mentioning how they were shocked that Billy Jo threw the pail. Billy Jo herself is furious and anguished over the fact that they didn’t hear how it was her husband’s fault for leaving a pail of kerosene out or that it was all an accident, but only that a pregnant was killed by her daughter.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene beside the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, causing the kerosene to catch fire. She runs out to get Daddy, but for reasons that are never explained, turns around and heads back for the house very quickly, and Billie Jo, not expecting her mother to be coming back so soon, throws the pail of still-burning kerosene out the door to stop the fire spreading through the house. The resulting accident leaves Billie Jo's hands and Ma's entire body covered in third degree burns, injuries that prove fatal to Ma.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene beside the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, resulting in a massive fire. She runs out to get Daddy, but for reasons that are never explained, turns around and heads back for the house very quickly, and Billie Jo, not expecting her mother to be coming back so soon, throws the pail of still-burning kerosene out the door to stop the fire spreading through the house. The resulting accident leaves Billie Jo's hands and Ma's entire body covered in third degree burns, injuries that prove fatal to Ma.

* LastMinuteBabyNaming: A tragic case. Billie Jo's baby brother dies before he's given a name, but the reverend at the funeral asks him to give the baby a posthumous name. He doesn't respond, so Billie Jo speaks up in his place and names her brother Franklin after the President.

* DrowningHisSorrows: After Ma gets disfigured in the kerosene accident, Bayard does this in a nearby town called Guymon to forget his life's problems. [[WhatTheHellHero Billie isn't happy about it]], although she forgives him for it fairly quickly (at least, much quicker than for causing the freak accident).

* DeathByChildbirth: Ma dies giving birth to Bille Jo's brother. The baby doesn't last much longer. Although in this case, it's not the birth alone that kills her so much as it pushes her over the edge after she was already on death's doorstep from the kerosene accident.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Used tragically. Billie Jo resembles her father in both looks and mannerisms but is very little like her mother. After Ma dies, Billie bemoans that she wish she could see more of her mother in herself]].

* DeathByChildbirth: Ma dies giving birth to Bille Jo's brother. The baby doesn't last much longer. Although in this case, it's not the birth alone that kills her so much as it pushes her over the edge after she was already on death's doorstep from the kerosene incident.

* DreamCrushingHandicap: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted;]] at first, it seems like this trope'll be played straight when Billie's hands are crippled in the freak accident, making it much tougher for her to play piano.]] However, local musician and good friend Arley Wanderdale tries to convince her to perform in a city-wide TalentContest anyway, and she does, winning second-place. By the end of the novel, [[spoiler: she's [[CharacterDevelopment playing piano on the regular again]].]]

* ImperiledInPregnancy: Ma is heavily pregnant when the accident happens. She survives being covered in burns, but dies giving birth.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene on the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, resulting in a massive fire. She runs out to get Daddy, but for reasons that are never explained, turns around and heads back for the house very quickly, and Billie Jo, not expecting her mother to be coming back so soon, throws the pail of still-burning kerosene out the door to stop the fire spreading through the house. The resulting accident leaves Billie Jo's hands and Ma's entire body covered in third degree burns, injuries that prove fatal to Ma.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene on the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, resulting in a massive fire. She runs out to get Daddy, and Billie Jo, not knowing her mother was going to turn around and come back so soon, throws the pail of still-burning kerosene out the door to stop the fire spreading through the house. The resulting accident leaves Billie Jo's hands and Ma's entire body covered in third degree burns, injuries that prove fatal to Ma.
* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: Subverted. Billie Jo is proud of herself when she wins third-place in the TalentContest.

* DeathByChildbirth: Ma dies giving birth to Bille Jo's brother. The baby doesn't last much longer.

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene on the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, resulting in a massive fire that ends with her fatally burning herself and her unborn baby.]]

* TheStoic: Daddy was alway like this, but cranked it up several notches after Ma and Franklin died. [[CharacterDevelopment He gets better.]]

* TeacherStudentRomance: A rare example between adults. After Billie Jo's father begins going to night school, he ends up falling for his teacher Louise.

* TragicStillbirth: [[spoiler:After the accident with the kerosene, Ma dies giving birth to Franklin, who is stillborn.]]

-->''I got burned bad''.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Billie repeatedly tries to make her mom and dad proud of her over the course of the book. She doesn't really succeed with her mom, but [[spoiler: does with her dad when she returns home from her train ride out of Oklahoma]].

* YouGotSpunk: When Billie returns from [[spoiler: her short trip out the Panhandle,]] Bayard says this almost verbatim.

* BodyHorror:
** [[spoiler: Happens to Ma after Billie Jo accidentally douses her in kerosene. She dies shortly after.]]
** It also happens to Billie herself, as her hands [[spoiler: become crippled due to third-degree burns.]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Both Billie Jo and Daddy. Billie becomes [[spoiler: a much stronger young woman, with a sense of purpose (i.e., her piano playing) by the book's end, and she forgives her father for the freak accident.]] Daddy is [[spoiler: not nearly as [[TheStoic stoic]] by the end of the novel; he also gets a girlfriend, Louise]].

* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler: Ma. The baby doesn't survive for very long either.]]
* DeathByDespair: Referenced. Billie Jo mentions that a woman died two hours after her husband. It was officially of dust pneumonia but Billie believes that she just couldn't go on without her husband.
* DeathByNewberyMedal: [[spoiler: Poor, ''poor'' Ma. Franklin too. Daddy also got ''very'' close to dying from skin cancer had it not been for Billie Jo returning home when she did]].

** [[spoiler:Billie's brother]] Franklin dies a few hours after being born.

* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: [[spoiler:Billie Jo has a supportive and kind mother and an emotionally distant (though not terrible) father. Guess which parent dies.]]
* DreamCrushingHandicap: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted;]] at first, it seems like this trope'll be played straight when Billie's [[spoiler: hands are crippled in the freak accident, making it much tougher for her to play piano.]] However, local musician and good friend Arley Wanderdale tries to convince her to perform in a city-wide TalentContest anyway, and she does, winning second-place. By the end of the novel, [[spoiler: she's [[CharacterDevelopment playing piano on the regular again]].]]
* DrowningHisSorrows: After Ma gets [[spoiler: disfigured in the kerosene accident,]] Bayard does this in a nearby town called Guymon to forget his life's problems. [[WhatTheHellHero Billie isn't happy about it]], although she forgives him for it fairly quickly (at least, much quicker than for causing the freak accident).

* ForWantOfANail: If that [[spoiler: pot of kerosene]] wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time, a ''lot'' of drama and heartache could've been avoided.
* FromBadToWorse: Things weren't so great at the beginning of the story, but once [[spoiler: Ma dies giving birth to Franklin,]] that's when things ''really'' start rolling off the deep end.
* FrothyMugsOfWater: Averted. Being set in the 1930s, it couldn't lack a reference to moonshine. It also features [[spoiler:Billie Jo's dad going out drinking after the accident]].

* GoodParents: Ma. [[spoiler: [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest She dies, of course]].]]

* INeedAFreakingDrink: [[spoiler:Daddy takes the stash of emergency money and spends it at a bar in Guymon until he's drunk enough to forget about his wife's horrific accident.]]

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Arley and Billie Jo. At the end, [[spoiler: Louise, as well]].

* MissingMom: [[spoiler:Billie's biological mother]] dies a few chapters in. She gets a step-mom near the end though.

* NothingIsScarier: [[spoiler:The condition of Franklin's stillborn body retrieved from his mother's charred corpse is never described. Which is probably for the best.]]

* ParentalTitleCharacterization: Billie Jo switches from "daddy" to "father" after she loses faith in her father. After they rekindle their bond she switches back.

* TheStoic: Bayard Kelby, mostly after [[spoiler: Ma and Franklin's deaths]] as a defense mechanism. [[CharacterDevelopment He gets better.]]
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Used tragically. Billie Jo resembles her father in both looks and mannerisms but is very little like her mother. [[spoiler:After her mother's death, she bemoans that she wish she could see more of her mother in herself]].

* ThisIsUnforgivable: One of the main conflicts in the novel is Billie Jo refusing to forgive her father for [[spoiler: leaving the pot of kerosene on the stove, as it lead to [[ForWantOfANail the chain of events]] ending in Ma's death.]] By the end, she [[CharacterDevelopment has forgave him]] - as well as herself, [[spoiler: for throwing the pot]].

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Billie's love of apples is noted several times. The book even includes a recipe for apple sauce in the afterword.

''Out of the Dust'' is a 1997 novel by acclaimed children's author Karen Hesse. It won the UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal in 1998. The novel is a collection of free-verse poems, making it a unique entry in the world of ChildrensLiterature. The plot deals with its protagonist Billie Jo Kelby, a [[{{Tomboy}} tomboyish]], talented pianist, struggling to survive in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during TheGreatDepression. She has a [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest kind]] mother, nicknamed Ma, [[DeathByNewberyMedal who dies tragically]], and a [[TheStoic distant]] father, nicknamed Daddy. As the novel progresses, Billie Jo and Daddy [[CharacterDevelopment learn to endure]] their tough existences, as well as the hole in their lives created by the death of Ma.

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* HistoricalFiction

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:Daddy leaves a pail filled with kerosene on the stove without telling Ma what it is. She mistakes it for water and tries to use it to make coffee, resulting in a massive fire.]]