by Julie Lawson
Nimbus Publishing, 2023
ISBN 978-1-77471-234-4 (sc)
$14.95, 266 pp, ages 10 – 13
nimbus.ca
Award-winning B.C. author Julie Lawson, whose grandfather served aboard the Niobe, which was involved in the 1917 Halifax explosion, has written a novel detailing the impact of the Great War, the Halifax disaster, and the Spanish flu on the rough and tumble Mooney family. Protagonist Jane sees her brother flee Canada as an underage soldier and then witnesses the destruction of her neighbourhood and the loss of her father and three siblings to the harbour explosion. In short order, waves of the 1918 influenza epidemic arrive, and somehow, the remaining members of the Mooney family—who are regularly forced to rely on the kindness of neighbours—manage to carry on.
Classroom Connections: The work deals with systemic poverty and domestic violence—two issues many young Canadians are unfortunately all too familiar with. The measures taken to fight the Spanish Flu (masks, distancing, school closures) will also surely remind intermediate readers of their own recent past. Out of the Dark could serve as a resource for a cross-curricular class novel study, especially since it is based on critical events in early twentieth-century Canadian history.
Review by George Sheppard.
This review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Fall 2024 issue.