Dark of the Moon

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education.

Meaghan is in a state of exile. Her father has died, and her mother’s
recent remarriage has brought about a move from a city apartment to a
country farmhouse, where she must share physical and emotional space
with a snappish stepsister. Panic over the loss of control in her life
results in periods of engulfing blackness.

Then she meets Miss Sarah Johnston, an elderly black neighbor said to
be clairvoyant. Like Meaghan, Miss Sarah has undergone trials and
humiliations in the community. Through the vehicle of an antique tin
box, which is the old woman’s family heirloom from South Carolina,
Meaghan experiences another dramatic shift in her life, this one a time
transport to a southern plantation in the days of the Underground
Railroad. Here, by encountering the most painful yet potentially
liberating moments of black history, Meaghan forgets her relatively
minor problems while she assists others in a life-and-death struggle for
freedom from slavery. In doing so, she experiences a kind of
reconciliation with her new blended family and an emancipation from the
debilitating darkness that has surrounded her.

Dark of the Moon is a particularly fine addition to the time-travel
genre. Characterization is vivid and believable; the narrative shifts
are smooth and captivating. Best of all, the author has developed the
book’s metaphors with more than ordinary touches of subtlety and
grace. Physical and spiritual darkness, the difficult yet ultimately
successful journey of the enslaved body, and a troubled adolescent soul
come together seamlessly, placing this fiction in the top ranks of its
type. Highly recommended.