The Journal of Etienne Mercier

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

It is 1853. The Hudson’s Bay Company orders a young voyageur, Etienne
Mercier, to leave Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island and journey north to
explore the Queen Charlotte Islands. For the next three months, Mercier
paddles his canoe from village to village and records what he sees in
print, painting, and song. Sometimes he is overwhelmed by the generosity
of his Haida Indian hosts, who welcome him as an honored guest into
their huge cedar lodges. At other times, he fears for his life as war
parties pass near his camp looking for human heads to take back as
battle trophies.

This gorgeous book is based on three mediums. The text, by Dave
Bouchard, is written journal style on mock parchment. Because Mercier is
supposed to be a simple coureur de bois, the text affects a
French-Canadian-peasant accent complete with grammatical and spelling
errors. This device in no way harms the content. Gordon Miller’s
near-photographic art has a much harder time passing itself off as the
work of an uneducated peasant, but his illustrations are simply too
beautiful to countenance criticism. A CD recording of Bouchard reading
his text, with seagull and ocean-wave sounds in the background,
accompanies the book. The CD neither helps nor hinders the book’s
overall effect. Highly recommended.