I’m celebrating my hat trick win at this week’s 2023 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards in Toronto. My debut novel Weird Rules To Follow won the TD Children’s Literature Award (Canada’s highest award for children’s literature), the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction and the Jean Little First Novel Award! It’s such an honour. I’m so grateful. Thank you to Orca Book and my dear family and friends who’ve supported me. And especially to those who’ve spent the time reading my story. What an exciting journey for a debut author!
“This beautiful and touching story about culture and class is full of sincerity and heart, following young Mia Douglas as she navigates the big feelings and relational obstacles amplified by adolescence. Though a fictional story, at its heart, Mia’s story feels more like a memoir than make-believe… Themes of class and internalized racism are seamlessly woven into this narrative… It’s impossible not to fall in love with the main character as you follow her through the labyrinth of the pre-teen years… Mia finds her way, but has to learn a few very hard truths about culture and class.” – TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award
“Authentic and honest storytelling that does not shy away from conversations about race, culture and class… Spencer has created a wonderful and heartfelt book… Mia, a young Indigenous girl, realizes that not every child is expected to follow the same rules… As an Indigenous person growing up in a First Nation community but going to school in a non-First Nation community, Spencer captures that reality of learning the rules of two extremely contrasting worlds… Subtle, poignant and reflective, this book takes a look back in order to reveal more about the present we are living in.” – Geoffrey Bilson Award Historical Fiction For Young People
“Kim Spencer is an exciting new voice in middle-grade fiction… Mia’s direct, open voice speaks of the vulnerability and hilarity of pre-teen growth; at the same time, this series of beautifully understated vignettes, set in the 1980s, gives a richly layered, nuanced view of family affection, activities and culture within one of BC’s Indigenous coastal communities. This is a work of remarkable subtlety and depth, both for its specific portrayal of place, culture and era, and for its moving depiction of the ecstasy and pain of adolescent growth.” – Jean Little First Novel Award
KIM SPENCER 