Kate, 12 (white) has lived with her grandmother, who runs a junk shop, at the edge of their Canadian town, even since her mom, a drug addict, left her there several years before. Kate’s prickly grandmother has one ongoing battle with a neighbor, a second with a customer, and has been visited by the police. Kate has also felt Gran’s resentment at having to care for her, but Gran supports Kate’s various money-making endeavors (her latest is a Peanuts-inspired philosophical advice booth), clearly determined to teach Kate to be independent. Kate, who was expelled at the end of grade 7 for behavioral issues (she was labeled “trouble”), is back for grade 8 and proves to be, simply and profoundly, someone who doesn’t look away when she sees bullying behavior in others, child or adult. To her surprise, she’s also making a few friends, including Gran’s neighborly nemesis, a retired teacher. When Kate begins to learn more about her mom’s history in the town—that a local doctor was responsible for her OxyContin addiction; that Kate’s own dad was a local teen who died in a freak accident while drunk at college—she’s angry at Gran for withholding so much information, and for doing nothing when surely she could do something, about the doctor for a start. Sharp, funny, tender characters propel this heartfelt novel in which kindness and community meet courage and action.