Fourteen-year-old Eva, who is Cree, lives in a small Canadian community with her little brother, Marcus, and her beloved grandmother, Nokhum, who takes care of them. Her mother, Shirley, is an alcoholic, unpredictable and unreliable; her negligence sent Eva into temporary foster care when she was little. Now Nokhum provides love and warmth and stability, although uncertainty is unescapable with money tight and Shirley in and out of their lives. When Nokhum breaks her hip, Shirley tries to pull herself together, but Eva and Marcus end up in separate foster homes after a frightening incident. Eva doesn’t like her social worker, and resents being separated from Marcus, but Grace, her foster parent, proves to be a reliable guardian. One of five Native teens in the house, Eva slowly builds trust—trust in Grace, trust in her housemates and, finally, trust in her mother, who is working hard in recovery. Eva is also reluctantly learning more about her mother’s and Nokhum’s past through her mom’s journal. Although she’s always thought of Nokhum as infallible, it turns out Shirley grew up in foster care because Nokhum, too, was an alcoholic during her daughter’s childhood, drinking after the trauma of residential school and losing her own mother. The intergenerational trauma of residential schools is a strong theme throughout Eva’s tale, as is recovery—and the fact that recovery often includes relapse. Eva’s story ends in a place of hope as she looks toward a brighter future. (Age 12 and older)