Out of the Dark was developed by Erma Konitsky, a high school teacher in a small Pennsylvania coal town, who guided the children of the 1970s as they described their family life. It was her intent to show the creative abilities of coal miner’s children and she started the little book as Northern Cambria High School’s project for the celebration of the town’s bicentennial in 1975 in the heart of Pennsylvania’s coal country. Today, 30 years later, Konitsky is still teaching at Northern Cambria, fashioning new versions of Out of the Dark with a new generation of children.