The True Story of Trapper Jack's Left Big Toe

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

The place is Dawson City in the Yukon. The plot revolves around the
legendary left big toe of Trapper Jack, amputated years earlier after
being frozen when the old trapper was caught in a fierce winter storm.
The first-person narrator, 10-year-old Josh, has been in Dawson City for
only one week when his new friend, Gabe, tells him that Trapper Jack has
only nine toes. The tenth toe is inside an empty tobacco tin behind the
bar in the Sourdough Saloon. Josh sets out to explore the Gold Rush town
and its inhabitants in order to check out this strange story.

This tall tale is presented in an oversize format. Wallace’s prose is
as colorful as his pictures, which blend realism with impressionism.
Wallace has won many book awards, and was 1994’s Canadian nominee for
the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. This book will especially
appeal to primary-school–aged boys. Highly recommended.