Weird Rules to Follow
by Kim Spencer
Intermediate    Orca    192 pp.
10/22    Paper ed.  9781459835580    $12.95
e-book ed.  9781459835603    $9.99

Mia, a Tsimshian tween, is growing up in the 1980s in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. She describes not only making giggly prank calls and getting ill-advised perms but also microaggressions and racism. When her best friend Lara’s bike goes missing, Lara’s father says, “It must have been the Indians.” Prejudice cuts both ways; one Native girl criticizes Mia for having white friends. Spencer goes a step further and addresses internalized racism as well: Mia’s mom, who is Tsimshian, does not let Mia take thick-cut bologna sandwiches to school—“Only Indians and poor people eat this kind of bologna”—and Mia’s aunt tells her cousin “not to marry an Indian.” Mia is surrounded by rules that feel “like an order rather than a suggestion” and that come from all sides: her family’s traditions; mainstream society’s restrictions. But Mia does not allow herself to be limited by other people’s “weird rules.” She also feels pride in her family and her people, enjoying salmonberry-picking season and attending the All Native Basketball Tournament, for example. The book’s chapters are connected bite-sized vignettes, easy to read but poetic and focused. Spencer (Ts’msyen First Nation) specializes in creative nonfiction, and this story, while fiction, rings true.

From the January/February 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.