Fourteen-year-old Eva’s life is like her shoes: rapidly falling apart. A heartbreaking and humorous young adult story of a Cree teenage girl who finds herself in a group home and must face her family’s traumatic past with the help of her grandmother and through her own writing.
For fourteen-year-old Eva Brown, life feels lonely and small. Her mother, Shir- ley, drinks and yells all the time. She’s the target of the popular mean girl, and her only friend doesn’t want to talk to her anymore. All of it would be unbearable if it weren’t for her cat, Toofie, her beloved nohkum, and her writing, which no one will ever see.
With Nohkum in the hospital, Eva’s mother struggles to keep things together and loses custody of Eva and her little brother. Furious at her mother’s weak- ness, Eva struggles to adjust to the group home—and being reunited with her family seems less and less likely. During a visit to Nohkum in hospital, Nohkum gives Eva Shirley’s diary. Can Eva find forgiveness for her mother within its pages?
