Place

JADE is in her last year of high school, turning eighteen. She is a resident of Turtle Point First Nations Reserve in the north and descended from a hereditary line of medicine women and men. Jade is a brilliant student, driven to complete high school, attend university, and become a medical doctor. Dani just turned twenty-one and is from a rural town in the south. She is young for a first-year teacher, fast-tracking through school to make a getaway from small-town closed mindedness. Dani is idealistic and determined to make an impact in her grade one classroom. Jade and Dani meet for the first time at the annual Pow Wow in late August, 1994-a week before the highly anticipated opening of the new school. An out-and-proud lesbian, Dani arrives in Turtle Point brimming with optimism but meets with hostility and mistrust as an "outsider". Jade keeps her attraction to women secret, living an independent but precarious life on the reserve. Book One, Place, tracks Dani's efforts to bring success to her students and find her place in Turtle Point, while Jade attempts to ace her studies in the face of personal and family issues. Dive into this thought-provoking lesbian narrative where cultures clash, societal norms are challenged, and compassion rings true.