Winner of a 2024 PNBA Book Award
Winner of the 2023 IODE Violet Downey Book Award
Winner of the 2023 Jean Little First-Novel Award
Winner of the 2023 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People
Winner of the 2023 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award
★“Readers will be left with a rich image of Mia’s world and the family and people that surround her as well as a strong sense of how culture and class impact people’s experiences. A touching exploration of identity and culture.”—Kirkus Reviews
Mia knows her family is very different than her best friend's.
In the 1980s, the coastal fishing town of Prince Rupert is booming. There is plenty of sockeye salmon in the nearby ocean, which means the fishermen are happy and there is plenty of work at the cannery. Eleven-year-old Mia and her best friend, Lara, have known each other since kindergarten. Like most tweens, they like to hang out and compare notes on their crushes and dream about their futures. But even though they both live in the same cul-de-sac, Mia’s life is very different from her non-Indigenous, middle-class neighbor. Lara lives with her mom, her dad and her little brother in a big house, with two cars in the drive and a view of the ocean. Mia lives in a shabby wartime house that is full of relatives—her churchgoing grandmother, binge-drinking mother and a rotating number of aunts, uncles and cousins. Even though their differences never seemed to matter to the two friends, Mia begins to notice how adults treat her differently, just because she is Indigenous. Teachers, shopkeepers, even Lara’s parents—they all seem to have decided who Mia is without getting to know her first.
The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.
The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award | 2023 | Winner
Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) Jean Little First-Novel Award | 2023 | Winner
Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People | 2023 | Winner
Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award | 2023 | Winner
United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) Outstanding International Books List (OIB) | 2023 | Commended
BC and Yukon Book Prizes - Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize | 2023 | Short-listed
Bank Street College of Education Children's Book Committee Best Children's Books of the Year | 2023 | Commended
Indigenous Voices Awards (IVA) - Published prose in English | 2023 | Short-listed
Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award | 2024 | Short-listed
Young Readers' Choice Book Awards of British Columbia (YRCABC) Red Cedar Book Awards | 2024 | Nominated
CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens | 2023 | Commended
Chocolate Lily Book Awards | 2023 | Short-listed
The Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks) - Young People’s Literature Text | 2023 | Nominated
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Pacific Northwest Book Awards | 2024 |
International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour List | 2024 | Commended
Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom | 2023 | Commended
BC Books for Schools | 2022 | Commended
Indigenous Books for Schools | 2022 | Commended
Download Weird Rules to Follow Chapter Sampler
Customizable Text and Layout
Text and layout can be adjusted for text size and colour, background colour, and layout to support individual reading preferences.
Described Images
Non-text content includes descriptive text, such as alt-text and long descriptions.
Table of Contents and Structured Navigation
Page elements are labelled and structured in a meaningful sequence.
Screen Reader and Text-to-Speech (TTS) friendly
Structured for screen readers and text-to-speech tools, including assistive technologies and browser plugins.
Bookmarks and Highlights
Add bookmarks and save highlighted passages.
ARIA Roles
ARIA roles clarify semantic elements of this ebook, making it easier for screen readers and assistive technologies to understand the contents of the book.
“This is one of the highlights for the last five years. I've read this a few times and each time I see more and more in it. I just think, isn't it wonderful that we have this author who has written a beautiful book — and has not followed the same pattern of every coming-of-age middle-grade book? She has written in her own style that I think is quite spectacular.”
“A terrific addition to any school library. touches on themes of prejudice, racism, and the intergenerational family impacts of residential schools while being told in an approachable way for students. The characters in this book are realistic and complicated and leave the reader with lasting impressions of life in Prince Rupert in the 1980s.”