Let's Go, Darby!
Now Available
Based on a true story.
It’s 1898. Ten-year-old Georgie Titus has clubfoot. He can’t walk. He can’t go to school. Kids in his small town laugh and call him names. Georgie hears about a new children’s hospital in Toronto where they “perform miracles.” He is determined to go. But how? The city is forty miles away.
Let’s Go, Darby! tells the remarkable story of the harrowing journey Georgie makes with his dog, Darby, landing on the doorstep of the Hospital for Sick Children. During his months-long stay at the hospital and its summer home on Toronto Island, miracles do happen, mostly unexpected. With the help of his beloved nurse and first-ever friends, Georgie gains the courage and confidence he needs to take the next big steps in his life.
Join Georgie and fellow patients on their journey from despair to hope and eventual healing. Let’s Go, Darby! conveys important messages of inclusion, connection and friendship in a fun, kid-centred way. A fictionalized account for middle grade readers of the early days of Toronto’s famous SickKids hospital, it is a gratifying Canadian story.
About the Author
Linda Rosenbaum is an award-winning Canadian author and mother of a child with a disability. She lives on Toronto Island, the site of SickKids hospital’s former summer home. Linda advocates for the inclusion of children with illnesses and disabilities in children’s literature, where traditionally they have been underrepresented. With Let’s Go, Darby! she draws complex and nuanced characters who face challenges, but will not be defined by them.
Linda has written for Canada's leading magazines and newspapers, and was a story producer for TV and documentary films. The last chapter of Linda's memoir, Not Exactly As Planned, won a CBC Canada Writes People's Choice Award for non fiction.
About the Illustrator
Barbara Klunder is one of Canada’s most respected artists. She has extensive experience working across mediums and genres of expression. Klunder moves with ease between her practice of graphic design (illustration, font design, page design) to textiles (hand-knit sweaters, carpets, paper-cuts and embroideries) to puppets, theatre costumes, backgrounds and murals.
She has created award-winning posters for the Toronto and Vancouver Jazz festivals, the Rolling Stones, and numerous music concerts and theatre productions. She was responsible for the visuals of the legendary BamBoo Club on Queen Street west in Toronto. She has designed a huge amount of good-cause fundraising posters and T-shirts for human rights issues, and her favourite cause for over thirty years: the Environment.
A selection of reviews and articles
LET'S GO, DARBY!
by Linda Rosenbaum ; illustrated by Barbara Klunder ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2025
A charming, sensitive story about the trials of health care and the importance of social welfare.
A disabled boy at the turn of the 20th century takes a bold step towards healing, finding friendship and dignity in the process in Rosenbaum’s illustrated children’s book.
The author draws on the true stories of Georgie Titus, a 10-year-old boy with clubfoot in Uxbridge, Ontario, who hitched his dog to a sled and rode 40 miles to Toronto in the winter of 1898, as well as other patients at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. Georgie is home in Uxbridge when he first hears his parents whispering about a “miracle surgery” that could straighten his legs and allow him to walk. He and his dog, Darby, regularly go on a paper-delivery route, but this time, they sled along the train tracks that head all the way to the big city. At the hospital, Georgie is introduced to the other kids in the care of kindly Nurse Underhill. They have simple conditions, such as cleft palate; accidental injuries, such as burns; and diseases, such as tuberculosis—all often exacerbated by poverty. The conventional treatment for Georgie’s condition is a monthslong process involving plaster casts; the doctor turns down his requests for surgery, saying that the boy is too old. “But no one has tried it on someone my age,” Georgie protests later. He doesn’t want to be an object of pity, despite the grim fact that putting on a pitiable spectacle generates more donations for the hospital. His hope for a surgical cure is effectively shown to be tied to his hope for a life of independence. Although the story takes place in 1898, the book’s strength lies in how it comments on lived experiences today. Georgie’s world sparkles with historical curiosity, from horse-drawn carts traveling gaslit streets to the children’s diet of stewed prunes, porridge, and “beef tea.” However, it’s the emotional realities—especially characters’ anxiety over the cost of health care, as well as concerns about pride and respectability—that make this a particularity acute and timely tale. Klunder’s occasional pastel illustrations depict a handful of notable characters.
A charming, sensitive story about the trials of health care and the importance of social welfare.
Kirkus Review
