THE MORNING BELL BRINGS THE

Molleigh Royston struggles to cope with the anger and sorrow expressed by her students in Tawakin—a tiny, remote, Nuu-chah-nulth community on the northwest corner of Vancouver Island. Things get worse when three students start behaving strangely. Hannah wears the same long sleeves every day to hide her hands. Candice shares a secret with Molleigh about the woman in the box with the baby. Odelia draws strange pictures while telling tales of the woman's silver and wooden teeth, and the extraordinary promises each tooth gives to whoever possesses them. Before Molleigh can make sense of it, a beloved elder dies and Molleigh follows a grieving Candice to the woman and her baby, despite dire warnings that sighting the woman's bones will upset the ancestors.

Thus begins Molleigh's quest to figure out why her students risked their souls to desecrate the dead. Her own discovery of the woman triggers a series of haunting events in the village. Giant boulders are placed in front of Molleigh's house, furniture in people's homes is moved mysteriously, and a house fire is started with flowers. When the unlikely storyteller is uncovered, leading to a confrontation that involves the school and the entire village, Molleigh comes to see the possibilities and limitations of being a non-native teacher of Indigenous students, with all their brilliance and resilience.

This captivating story about the complexity of hope and the nature of choice—how people come to believe in their choices and the powerful role stories play in creating that belief—unveils the sometimes fruitful yet ultimately flawed relationship between non- native teachers and Indigenous students in Canada. It's a profound and emotionally wrenching look at how the education system fails our remote, Indigenous communities, leaving everything in the hands of transient educators—both kind and wicked.

Jennifer Manuel is a writer of both literary novels and children's fiction. Her debut novel, The Heaviness of Things That Float, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancouver Sun listed it as one of the best novels of 2016. CBC named Jennifer a Writer to Watch. Jennifer divides her time between Duncan, BC and the very remote community of Kyuquot on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island where she teaches elementary and high school. She also runs the TRC Reading Challenge, which encourages all Canadians to read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report.