Karen Hesse Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Chapter Books

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Dear America Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Karen S. Hesse is a renowned poet and children’s fiction and historical fiction author. The author was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1952 and had a very difficult childhood living in row houses with very little privacy.

Nonetheless, she always felt isolated even though she was always surrounded by people. It was from her feelings of isolation that she began reading as she combined this with a need for privacy to spend hours on the bough of an apple tree behind her house.
She still remembers how she used to get in trouble at night as she often read when she should have been sleeping. During this time, she loved reading the works of Dr. Seuss before she moved on to Katherine Paterson.

Growing up, she was a shy girl who felt different from the other girls and never felt a sense of belonging. She had many friends but she could never feel close enough to trust anyone with her deepest secrets.

Consequently, she was a very lonely girl who spent much of her time lost in the worlds of the books she read. It was the reading she did during this time that fueled her imagination and made her into the bestselling author she is today.

While Karen S. Hesse had all manner of dreams about what she wanted to be, her fifth-grade teacher believed she would make a very good professional author.

When her mother remarried, Hesse suddenly had a stepsister and father. She was initially very jealous of her stepsister as she seemed to get all the attention as she was a very good dancer.

In order to get some attention she got into acting in school plays and dramas and proved a very good actress. In 1969, she went to Townson State College to study theater and this is where she met her future husband Randy.
Feeling that she could not do theater and love at the same time, she decided to drop out. Aged only 19, she eloped with Randy, and soon after their wedding vows, her husband was deployed to Vietnam.

While he was away with the Navy, Hesse moved into a hotel in Virginia and it was during this time that she went back to college. She got her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Maryland minoring in anthropology and psychology.
It was also at this time that she got back to writing poetry and would become known for her very popular readings of her poetry.

Over the years, Hesse has held all manner of jobs that have had a significant influence on her later writing. Some of the jobs that she has held include book reviewer, librarian, proofreader, advertising secretary, and substitute teacher.
In 1976, Hesse and Randy her husband packed their camping equipment and clothing and traveled all over the US for half a year.

When they landed in Vermont, they knew they had found what they wanted in a home. They would end up living in southern Vermont for years and still call it their home.

When she got her two daughters, she concentrated more on raising them and put her writing of poetry on hold for the time being.

Still, it was about this time that she began penning children’s fiction that would culminate in the publishing of “Wish on a Unicorn” in 1991. When her children were older, Karen S. Hesse got back to poetry writing.
She would get the reward she deserved when she won the Newbery Medal in 1998 after she published the novel “Out of the Dust.”

“Out of the Dust” by Karen S. Hesse is set in 1934 and 1935 when Oklahoma’s economy was in depression following the dust storm and drought that happened at the time.

During that time, such things did not get much coverage from the media and there was only scanty information in journals and newspapers.

The lead in the work is Billy Jo who begins writing in 1934 as she describes her love for music and physical characteristics.

All she wanted was flowers in bloom and green fields in the morning but all she got was a dust storm and a great drought that killed animals, plants her family, friends, and even her dreams.
Even though she was a simple kid, she had some very big dreams of playing the piano even as she developed crushes just like any other normal kid.

Her dreams had blown up like a balloon when her father accidentally stored a bucket of kerosene. The container had subsequently exploded burning her mother, her fetus brother, and her delicate hands.
In one stroke she lost her dream of leaving Oklahoma to go become a piano prodigy.

Karen S. Hesse’s novel “Letters from Rifka” tells the riveting tale of a young girl and her family that make a courageous and daring escape from Russia during the 1919 pogroms.

The work is told in the form of several letters that Rifka pens to Tovah her cousin who is still living in Russia. While on their quest to escape the pogroms, the family contracts Typhus and barely survives to make it to Antwerp.
But Rifka is detained as she is suffering from ringworm which forces the family to make the hard decision to continue on without her. She stays behind with a Belgian family who takes her to a nunnery where she is to be treated by nuns.
Ultimately, she is allowed to make the voyage to the United States all alone. When she finally makes it to the Americas she is held at Allis Island for her baldness.

Government officials believe her bald condition makes her unmrriageable, which makes her a risk of becoming a ward of the state.

Her loving kindness, courage, determination, and brilliance make for an unforgettable portrayal of the immigrant experience.

“The Music of Dolphins” by Karen S. Hesse tells the story of Mila a little girl who was traveling with her parents. Their plane had gone down and her entire family was presumed dead until Mila was found several years later.
She had been spotted by airplanes walking on the edge of the sea and had been brought to safety. But she never wanted to be brought to normal human society as she has been living for years with her new Dolphin family.

They had been responsible for saving her and she had become a part of their life. Together, they lived in playful solidarity even if Mila has legs and arms.

She has learned to sing their music and glides on their shoulders and back as they glide among the waves and catch fish for food.

She has even come to speak their language but all the government wants is to study the mysterious Dolphin Girl.