Pictures are included to punctuate the story. The Weedpatch school was a school that was set up for the Okie children who were living in the poor camps of California.
Dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby.
While others flee from the dust bowl, Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of OklahomaBand in the surprising landscape of her own heart. This is a story of a girl who has to deal with the death of her mother, living with the pain that she caused the accident that killed her mother, guilt, and a father who would not talk about the accident and deal with his depression. It is a story of growing up under the harshest of circumstances.