Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse (born August 29, 1952) is an American author of children's and young adult literature, best known for her historical fiction novel Out of the Dust (1997), which won the Newbery Medal and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Other notable works include Letters from Rifka (1992), Witness (2001), and The Music of Dolphins (1996); she also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002.