"She aches for rain...I could see her from the barn,/ she was bare as a pear,/ raindrops/ sliding down her skin,/ leaving traces of mud on her face and her long back./ trickling dark and light paths,/ slow tracks of wet dust down the bulge of her belly" pg. 56
This is historical fiction told in verse. I had to open with the lines above because even as I came to the end of the story, I still had the image of Billy Jo's mom, pregnant and naked, standing in the hot summer rain with the water falling over her belly. This is a sad book, but its a book full of the hope that life will go on even through the worst sort of sadness.
Spoilers: The book takes place during two years of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Billy Jo tells us the story of the loss of her mother and her unborn baby brother, the torments of the Dust Storms and the horrible drought that plagued Oklahoma. Through the tragedies, we wonder if the family will ever pull itself together but in the end its a story of growth and forgiveness.
I am tentative to read books in verse. At first, I was especially bothered with this one, because I thought the poems themselves were just very short vignettes cut into smaller lines (i.e. not really poems), but the form grew on me and I learned to like it by the end and whether or not the line breaks were needed, there was still a great story there.
Intended reading level: Grades 3-6 Interest level: Grade 4
Genre: historical fiction, poetry
Comparable titles: Grapes of Wrath, Love that Dog, Moon over Manifest
Book connections: 1930s piano songs, wheat, old newspaper articles and photos of the Dust Bowl
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