After the deaths, Billie Jo stops calling her father "Daddy." Hands scarred and burned, Billie Jo is left unable to play piano, one of the few joys that had remained in her life (like her mother). Time goes on, and she begins to notice spots on her father's face, similar to those on her grandfather when he had skin cancer. After trying to return to her former lifestyle, Billie Jo becomes desperate to get out of the dust, so she gets up and leaves one night with only a handful of biscuits. 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. After a week, Billie Jo returns home and convinces her father to see a doctor. She calls him "Daddy" for the first time since the incident. The two even start to gain each other's trust again. She then meets Louise, a woman who stayed with her father while Billie was on the run. Billie Jo respects Louise because Louise knows how to cope with "two redheads" and not "step on the toes of a ghost". Billie Jo and Louise just talk, and her father eventually ends up courting Louise. Reception Out of the Dust has received many accolades: 1998, Newbery Medal 1998, Scott O'Dell Award 1998, American Library Association, Best Books for Young Adults 1999, Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award nominee References Newbery Medal–winning works 1997 American novels 1997 children's books 1997 poetry books Children's historical novels Children's verse novels American children's novels Novels set in Oklahoma Great Depression novels Fiction set in 1934 Fiction set in 1935