Freddie the Flyer [Hardcover]

A gorgeous picture book that pays homage to aviator Freddie Carmichael — the first Indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic —with each month of the year highlighting moments from his life, the beauty of the North and the power of dreams.

When Freddie was young, he saw a plane up close for the first time when it dropped off supplies at his family’s remote bush camp. He was instantly hooked.

Freddie has flown for nearly seventy years, doing everything from supply runs to search and rescue to transporting dog teams to far-flung areas.

This book celebrates Freddie’s early dreams of flying and his later achievements. Readers move with Freddie through the year, hearing about his journey as a pilot and leader, while learning the names of the months in Gwich’in and Inuvialuktun at the same time. Art from Inuvialuit painter Audrea Loreen-Wulf perfectly captures the incredible Western Arctic as well as Freddie’s love for aviation.One of CBC's Best Canadian Books for Kids and Teens of 2023

PRAISE FOR Freddie the Flyer:

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. . . . 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. . . . Shines with a love of both planes and place. —Kirkus Reviews

The story of an Indigenous boy who dreamed of taking to the sky unfolds across the year in this picture-book biography that draws on Gwich’in language, the plƒS