Set in 1976 on the Red Crow Mi’kmaq reservation, Rhymes for Young Ghouls employs genre conventions to address the damage wrought by Canada’s residential schools on generations of First Nations people. The story is told from the perspective of fifteen-year-old Alia (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs), a heroine whose wisdom, creativity, and entrepreneurial prowess keep the authorities at bay. Writing for CBC, Chelsea Vowel asserted that the film “makes this part of our collective history accessible in a way that no Royal Commission or official report can hope to match.”