Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Karla Carballo

Book Title: Out of the Dust.
Author: Hesse, Karen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Illustrator: Mullins, Daniel
Publisher/Year: Scholastic Press / 1977
Evaluate the Book for the following elements
Style and Language: Using examples for the book, explain the following: Word
choices, dialogue, rhythm, rhyme and sentence length. Share unexpected insights or
interesting information the reader learns from this story. (5 points)
Billie Jo's pregnant mother is making breakfast, her father leaves a pail of kerosene next to the
stove and then goes out into the fields. Her mother picks up the pail, mistakenly thinking it is water
and makes "a rope of fire". Screaming to her husband, Billie Jo's mother runs out to the fields, with
Billie Jo behind her. Thinking the house may catch on fire, Billie Jo runs back inside and throws the
can of kerosene out the door. Unfortunately, her mother is running back to the house, and Billie Jo
ends up throwing the can of kerosene onto her mother’s apron, lighting her on fire. Billie Jo runs
outside and began to beat the flames on her mother with her bare hands in an attempt to save both
her mother and unborn sibling. Her mother is taken inside and treated by the local doctor, but she
never again looks like "Ma" to Billie Jo, for she is unrecognizable through her burns. Billie Jo's own
hands are badly burned as well, swollen and dripping pus. One night, Billie Jo's father takes the
money allocated to pay for his daughter's future education and gets drunk at Guymon. Billie Jo is
left trying to give water (using immensely burned and swollen hands) to her burned and injured
mother.

Character: With examples from the book, provide the following- (5 points)
Who is the main character? Billie Jo Kelby
How can the reader relate to the character? Bayard Kelby (Father), Polly Kelber
(Mother), Franklin Kelby (Brother), Arley Wanderdale, Aunt Ellis, Buddy Williams,
County Agent Dewey, Haydon P. NYE, Joe De La Flor, Livie Killian, Loiuse, Mad Dog
Craddock.
Who are the supporting characters?Miss Freeland, Mr. Hardly, Mrs. Love, Pete
Guymon, Reverend Bingham, Sherrif Robertson, Vera Wanderdale. The Drifter,Dic
Rice.

Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)

Billie Jo is a girl living in Oklahoma with her parents, who are living during the Great Depression, her
mother die after give birth to her son alive who died later. Billie Jo's takes more responsibilities
when her mother dies. Billie Jo's struggles to help her family survive after her mother and brother
dies. Billie Jo's burned hands healing and she is now capable to play piano her passion.

Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)
Oklahoma, Dust-Bowl, in 1934.
It is about love, family, loss and forgiveness. The message is no matter how hard or bad is
happening to us is always good begin, strong, powerful and love. Rise from the ashes.
Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2
points)
realism, in all the expressions.

Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk):
(2 points)pencil, colors, charcoal and acrylic.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: Straight, vertical
Shapes: simple no complex just the piano
Color: black and white
Texture: smooth
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3) All are the same more words than illustration.
bold letter and cursive letters, just a piano and some do, re, la.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social Emotional to

describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
Piaget:
Name the stage: Concrete Operational Stage and the age 7 to 11 years old.
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice: They begin to understand, children to thinking logically
about concrete events. She hitchhikes on a train, and a homeless and smelly man
comes up to her. Talking for a while, he shows her a picture of his family before she
falls asleep. She awakens to find that her biscuits are gone, but the picture that the
man had of his family is left in its place. It is here she learns of her sense of belonging,
and it all becomes clear to her.

Erickson:
Name the stage_____________________ and the age_______________________
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:

Emotional Development:
Identify the age: _________________________
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose:

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 2

Why? Because is an interesting book until I started read about the accident of Billie
Jo's mother, I can handle but probably I will not reading to my little children.