The Flying Canoe

On New Year’s eve, 1847, eleven-year-old Baptiste finds himself far from his friends and family and his home in La Beauce. He has come to the woods of the Ottawa Valley to live and work among “the finest lumberjacks in Canada.” As the New Year approaches, Baptiste and the lumberjacks grow more and more homesick. Resolved to see their families again before the stroke of midnight, the crew board a magical canoe that lifts them into the air, across villages, and closer to home.

This beautiful retelling of the Quebecois folktale reunites Roch Carrier with illustrator Sheldon Cohen and translator Sheila Fischman. (The Hockey Sweater, The Basketball Player, The Longest Home Run), and brings this beloved story to life.

Roch Carrier is Canada’s National Librarian and the beloved author of many Canadian classics for both adults and children. In 1968 he published his hugely successful novel, La Guerre, Yes Sir!. He has written many novels, short stories, plays, film and television scripts, essays, travel books, and poetry. Several of his works have become classics and are used in schools and universities around the world. His much-loved children's story, The Hockey Sweater, remains a timeless favorite. In 1991, Roch Carrier was awarded the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour for Prayers of a Very Wise Child. Among his many other awards and honors, Mr. Carrier is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the holder of many honorary doctorates. All this from the boy who grew up in a village with no library and no books. Now the village has a brand new library – the Roch Carrier Library.

Sheldon Cohen has had an impressive career in illustration, animation, film directing, and painting. His films include Pies (1983), which won the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival, and The Sweater (1980), which won fifteen international awards. The Sweater’s success with a book version of the film and a sequel, the latter won the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Illustration. The Snow Cat, an animated film based on a children’s book by the late Dayal Kaur Khalsa, was released in 1998. In addition to his work in film, Sheldon Cohen is an accomplished and highly regarded painter and a sought-after lecturer and teacher. He lives in Montreal.

Sheila Fischman has translated more than 100 Quebec novels. She is a three-time winner of the Governor General’s Award for Translation and was twice awarded the Félix-Antoine Savard Award (Columbia University). She has translated novels from French to English by Michel Tremblay, Jacques Poulin, Anne Hébert, François Gravel, and of course, Roch Carrier. She has honorary doctorates from the University of Waterloo and from the University of Ottawa. Sheila Fischman is a member of the Order of Canada. She lives in Montreal.