Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people.
THEMES:
Race, History, Black, Latine, Racism
New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive.
Publication Date: September 1st, 2015
Audiobook? Yes
Age Range: 13+
Read Time: 6 hour, 25 minutes (at 300 WPM)
ISBN-13: 9781467742023
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Hope Pérez is the author of three award-winning novels for young adults. Her most recent, OUT OF DARKNESS, received a 2016 Printz honor for excellence in young adult literature and the 2016 Tomás Rivera Book Award. THE NEW YORK TIMES called it a "layered tale of color lines, love and struggle" where “a tragedy, real and racial, swallows us whole.” BOOKLIST named it among "50 Best YA Books of All Time." Ashley is an assistant professor of world literatures at The Ohio State University and lives in Columbus with her two sons.
Videos
Ashley Hope Pérez talks about her two novels and describes how her students inspired her to write and some of her tricks for writing. (September 2012, Ashley Hope Perez)
Ashley Hope Pérez responding to the Kara Bell school board viral video where a mom reads a passage from Out of Darkness out of context. (October 2021, Ashley Hope Perez)
IN THE NEWS
Banned Books Week has new meaning for Columbus author whose novel was challenged (The Columbus Dispatch)
Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted. (The New York Times)
Out of Darkness Pulled for Review in Central Texas Middle Schools (Book Riot)