Rhymes for Young Ghouls

In 1976, 15-year-old Aila, a Mi'kmaq Indian living on the Red Crow Reservation, has had to grow up quickly ever since a tragic incident in 1969 led to her mother committing suicide and her father Joseph being sent to jail. Aila still has a strong spiritual connection to her mother and holds complicated feelings toward her father; she believes he has done some good things for the wrong reasons and some wrong things for good reasons. By law, Aila is supposed to be attending residential school--an oppressive, abusive environment toward all Indians--but she has been able to avoid this by regularly paying off Popper the truant officer, who calls these payments "truancy tax." She amasses her money by operating a grow-op with, among others, her paternal Uncle Burner; Popper is aware of this. Burner justifies Aila leading the operation in that she is underage, thus more immune to whatever the law throws their way. Although Aila tries to keep on Popper's good side, she considers him the opposite of a friend or ally. An incident with some of Alia's associates leads to the proceeds from her drug deals going missing. Based on the story, she knows that it was all orchestrated by Popper. Despite Popper now having all her money, she knows her life is threatened if she cannot come up with her regular payments to him, so she decides that the best move is to steal the money back from him--being caught by him would lead to negative repercussions more serious than nonpayment. Her plans are affected by the return of her father, who has just been released from jail and has his own long, antagonistic history with Popper.