Weird Rules to FollowWeird Rules to Follow

It's the 1980's. Mia and her best friend, Lara, have known each other since kindergarten. But even thought they both live in the same cul-de-sac in the coastal fishing town of Prince Rupert, Mia's life is very different from her non-Indigenous, middle class neighbor. Lara lives with her mom, dad and little brother in a big house with two cars in the driveway. Mia lives in a shabby wartime house that is full of relatives-- her churchgoing grandmother, binge-drinking mother and a rotating number or aunts, uncles and cousins. Their differences never matter to the two friends, but Mia begins to notice how people 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.
"In this novel for middle readers told in vignettes, Mia and her best friend Lara have very different experiences growing up in a northern fishing community in the 1980s."--