Karen Hesse
- Karen was born on August 29th, 1952, in Baltimore, Maryland.
- While attending the University of Maryland, Karen received a degree in English and a minor in psychology and anthropology.
- While in fifth grade, Karen developed her dream to become an author and publish her own book. It took only thirty years for Karen to accomplish her childhood dream.
- Before becoming a writer, Karen was a jack of all trades holding jobs ranging from being a waitress to being a mental health care provider while also serving as a typesetter and a substitute teacher.
- Karen believes young readers are the most challenging, demanding, and rewarding audiences to write for.
- Using the genre of historical fiction, Karen revisits past occurrences in an attempt to analyze how different perspectives attribute to how previous events transpired.
- By incorporating various perspectives, Karen attempts to encourage her readers to analyze the multicultural aspects encompassed in her work by determining their inter-sectionality.
- Karen's work attempts to articulate how significant historical events shape current sociatal norms and expectations.
"The way I see it, hard times aren't about money, or drought, or dust. Hard times are about losing spirit, and hope and what happens when dreams dry up."
"As long as you live, it is never too late to make amends. Take my advice, child. Don't waste your precious life with regrets and sorrow. Find a way to make right what was wrong, and then move on."
Awards:
Hesse was a MacArthur Fellow in 2002.
Hesse won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association for her book Out of the Dust in 1997, as well as the annual Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.
Letters from Rifka won an International Reading Association Award and a National Jewish Book Award in 1992.
Historical Fiction:
Realistic Fiction:
Selected Works:
- Letters from Rifka (1992)
- Lester's Dog (1993)
- Poppy's Chair (1993)
- Phoenix Rising (1994)
- A Time of Angels (1995)
- Lavender (1995)
- The Music of Dolphins (1996)
- Out of the Dust (1997)
- Just Juice (1998)
- Come on, Rain! (1999)
- A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin (1999)
- Stowaway (2000)
- Witness (2001)
- The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories of Hanukkah Through History (2003)
- The Cats in Krasinski Square (2004)
- Spuds (2008)
- Brooklyn Bridge (2008)
- Safekeeping (2012)
Video: Meet the Author
Major Work Summaries:
Out of the Dust (1997)
From a historical fiction point of view, Hesse uses her main
character, Billie Jo Kelby, to tell a first-hand
account of the harsh reality
faced by many living in the Oklahoma Panhandle during the Great Depression and
its equally devastating counterpart, the Dust bowl, which blanketed much of the
southwestern Great Plains region with dust during violent dust storms. Encompassed in the first hand account, is a
detailed description of the everyday experiences Billie Jo’s family encountered
including their hardships, their source of hope, and the sacrifices they had to
make to being able to survive the trying times.
Aside from Billie Jo’s personal experiences, socioeconomic and
political aspects are also incorporated into the text in an effort to
acknowledge their impact on past historical events.
Personal Response: I thought this book offers its readers an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of historical events by moving away from just focusing on facts to acknowledging the personal details and experiences that characterize the per-described times. I would use this text in combination with a social studies unit covering the Great Depression while working with upper elementary students.
Letters from Rifka (1992)
Using her great-aunt's personal account as a basis for her story, Hesse uses her main character, Rifka, to tell
a first-hand account of the events Rifka experienced while immigrating from Russia to Belgium and eventually to the United States in an attempt to escape the tragedies associated with the Russian Civil War. During the pre-described time, Jewish families were persecuted in Russia and were forced to flee to other countries to find safety. Throughout the story, Hesse acknowledges elements of race, religion, culture, and how they were impacted by the power structures that existed in Russian society at that time.
Personal Response: I thought this book offered its readers the opportunity to view the idea of immigration from a different perspective by imaging how it would feel to have to flee one's country in fear of being persecuted for one's religious beliefs while also acknowleding the complexities associated with immigrating to a strange country with a completely different ideology, social structure, and governmental structure.
Bibliography:
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