Children of the Dust: An Okie Family Story (Plains Histories) | 
 enlarge | Author: Betty Grant Henshaw
Creator: Sandra Jean Scofield
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 480851
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 229
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0896725855
Dewey Decimal Number: 976.6053
EAN: 9780896725850
ASIN: 0896725855
Publication Date: October 6, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand new unmarked unread hardcover
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
OKLAHOMA BOOK AWARD FINALIST.
Betty Grant Henshaw was born into a large family of tenant farmers in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era. For years her father, Bill, worked himself to exhaustion, trying to earn enough to provide for his wife and nine children and to buy his own small farm, but he was never able to get ahead. Other family members had joined the great migration of Okies to California. Finally yielding to pressure from others, with some reluctance Bill piled his family in the Ford pickup and set off along Route 66 for the Golden State.
There the family found abundant opportunities to work, but work often meant backbreaking labor in the fields for dirt-cheap wages in hundred-degree heat. Bill did his best to shield his family from the brutality of the fields. His abiding respect for work, which he cultivated in his children, led his family through difficult times. In the end, although he missed Oklahoma, Bill was proud to find that the Grants could thrive in any soil.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Sincere, genuine September 2, 2008
A woman's reflections on life, family and the never-ending pursuit of happiness from a poor dirt farmers perspective of the 1930's and `40's.
Betty Grant Henshaw's story begins in the 1930's dust bowl regions of Oklahoma and concludes in the farming districts of California. Her father was the typical hard working man who did everything possible to keep his large family together. A true icon.
Mrs. Henshaw's stories of growing-up in these times are a keepsake insight as to how life was a colossal struggle and the smallest things were much appreciated by all.
Filled with heart, spirit and compassion.
A profound story of salt-of-the-earth people proudly doing their best to survive July 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, Children of the Dust: An Okie Family Story is the personal memoir of author Betty Grant Henshaw, who was born into a large family of tenant farmers in Oklahoma during the terrible time of the Dust Bowl. Her father, Bill, worked himself to exhaustion striving to provide for his wife and nine children; eventually his family had to migrate to California, where he worked in the fields in hundred-degree heat. Yet he instilled respect for hard work in his children, and kept family solidarity through trying times. Highly recommended as a powerful and profound story of salt-of-the-earth people proudly doing their best to survive.
CHILDREN OF THE DUST: AN OKIE FAMILY STORY January 16, 2007
VERY WELL WRITTEEN. BRING THAT TIME BACK TO LIFE.
Compelling narative December 9, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a joy to read. It is a story so intimately told that one feels a kindred spirit with the author and her family. Many of us who lived through the great depression and life in the west can share some of her memories, and we can relive many of the experiences in our own childhoods.
I highly recommend this book.
Audrey DeMott
Heartfelt Book about a Difficult Life November 27, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book really brings to life what it meant to be a young girl growing up in Oklahoma during the dust bowl. The struggles the family goes through and survives as the father tries to make a living as a sharecropper are fascinating. This was a world of real poverty but also great family love. Reading a history of this time through one family's experiences is a great story.
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