Sharon M. Draper is the award-winning author of dozens of children’s and young adult fiction books. Darkness Before Dawn (February 2001) is the third title in her Hazelwood High Trilogy. It won a Buckeye Book Award in 2005 and became an American Language Association (ALA) Top Ten Quick Pick. The first two books in the series, Tears of a Tiger (1995) and Forged by Fire (1997), have also been award winners.

In addition to the Hazelwood High Trilogy, Draper has written other series, standalone novels, poetry, and nonfiction works. She has won five Coretta Scott King awards throughout her prolific career, and some of her works have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Draper lives in Cincinnati, where the Hazelwood High Trilogy is set. She taught high school English for 25 years before becoming a full-time writer, and this background gives her firsthand knowledge of the world she writes about in the trilogy.

While many of Draper’s books describe the African American teenage experience, she is equally interested in the subject of race in general and also examines the plight of the physically challenged. Although she writes for a younger audience, many of her novels deal with adult subject matter such as loss, grieving, and abuse because Draper believes these issues are a reality for today’s urban youth.

Darkness Before Dawn is categorized as Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Sexual Abuse and Teen & Young Adult Black & African American Fiction. While the writing style makes this book easily accessible to middle school readers, it is recommended for those 12 and above. Some parents and teachers may find that the subject matter of date rape is more appropriate for high school students than 12-year-old children. All page citations in this study guide are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.

The novel is set in contemporary Cincinnati in an urban high school called Hazelwood High. It follows the lives of a group of students from April of their junior year until their graduation ceremony the following spring. The story is told using first-person narration from the perspective of a student named Keisha Montgomery. She begins the tale on her graduation day and recalls in flashback all the events that took place during the preceding year. Keisha starts by remembering the suicide of her former boyfriend and the various challenges her friends faced during their senior year. Keisha herself becomes enthralled by a student-teacher who attempts to seduce and rape her. In describing Keisha’s ordeal and eventual survival, the novel examines the themes of becoming an adult, conspiracies of silence, and survival through the support of friends and family.

Plot Summary

As the novel begins, Keisha is waiting to make a graduation day speech to her classmates. Before taking the stage, she recalls all the ups and downs of her life and those of her friends during the preceding year. Her mind travels back to when she discovered her boyfriend had shot himself. Keisha and her friends are devastated by this loss since another of their classmates died in a car accident only a few months earlier. These tragedies cause Keisha to shut down emotionally. While she deals with her personal grief, other friends are experiencing their own traumas. One suffers from anorexia nervosa, while another crashes her father’s car.

Keisha wants to help her friends through their difficulties but doesn’t realize she is in danger from a sexual predator. The principal’s handsome son Jonathan has joined the faculty as a student-teacher. Keisha finds him immensely attractive. He is charming and articulate and tells her about the places he’s seen and the things he’s done. Jonathan finds ways to maneuver himself into Keisha’s good graces even though her friends and family don’t entirely trust him. He’s also 23, while Keisha is only 18.

Resisting the advice of everyone else, Keisha begins seeing Jonathan in secret. Although she goes to the Valentine Dance with Leon, a boy who sincerely cares for her, Keisha rids herself of him to go to Jonathan’s apartment for a late dinner. She wants to think of herself as a sophisticated adult, but she isn’t ready to start a sexual relationship with Jonathan. He refuses to take no for an answer and threatens her with a knife. Keisha resists and slashes Jonathan’s face with his knife before escaping into a frigid January night without a coat or shoes.

She is found by a woman without a home who takes her indoors to revive her and put her in contact with her family. Keisha is so ashamed of her behavior that she shuts out her friends and doesn’t want to press charges against Jonathan. Eventually, the love and support of her friends and family help put Keisha back on track. She learns from another rape survivor that she wasn’t Jonathan’s only target. He is eventually caught and imprisoned for his crimes. By graduation, Keisha has learned a valuable lesson about what it takes to become an adult and how to spring back from life’s challenges without losing hope in a brighter future.