1. Out of the Dust

2. Style Free Verse No regular pattern of rhyme or rhythm. Prose
The ordinary language used when speaking or writing.
Why did the author, Karen Hesse, choose to write her novel in the form that she did? How would the story have been different if she choose to write the story in traditional prose? Did you like the style she picked? Explain.

3. Characters Static Characters
Characters who don’t change during the story.
Dynamic Characters
Characters who undergo a dramatic change during the course of a story.
Does Billie Jo change during the course of Out of the Dust? Explain. How about her father?

4. Figurative Language Simile
Comparison between two unlike things using a word to make the
comparison such as like, as, than, resembles, etc.
Metaphor
Comparison between two unlike things without using a comparative
word.
Personification
A comparison giving a nonliving object living traits.

5. Figurative Language
Why do authors use figurative language in poetry and prose? How could you use figurative language in your own writing?

6. Foreshadowing
When an author leaves little hints about what might happen later in the story.
Why would an author use foreshadowing in their writing?

7. Setting The setting is the time and place in which a story occurs.
In some stories the setting is relatively unimportant, but in others it is vital to the story.
How does the setting of Out of the Dust almost become a character in the story?

8. Theme The lesson the author is trying to teach in the story.
What is Karen Hesse trying to tell us about life with her book Out of the Dust?