FREDDIE THE FLYER

The story of a boy “half Scottish-Irish, half Gwich’in, and one hundred percent shy” and his love of airplanes, set in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Telling his tale in the third person along with Metcalfe-Chenail, Carmichael goes from school-age daydreams of flight in the tiny town of Aklavik, Canada, to adventures as a private pilot on the Mackenzie Delta. His exploits range from ferrying a pregnant passenger who goes into labor to braving blizzards to rescue a stranded prospector; in later years, he’d go on to become a locally prominent businessman. In terse narrative sections headed with the names of successive months in English, Gwich’in, and Inuvialuktun, he also details how he transported fur trappers and their dog teams, naturalists studying wildlife of the western Arctic, and tourists visiting the Igloo Church in Inuvik. Further details about his decades of involvement with his multicultural community are summed up in a closing note. Painting on rough canvas, Loreen-Wulf underscores the breadth and beauty of the subarctic landscape with scenes of musk oxen and caribou, broad snowfields, and swathes of seasonal wildflowers beneath twilit skies and bright Northern lights. A multilingual glossary and photos close out the work.

Shines with a love of both planes and place.