• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Short-listed for the 2004 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Norma Fleck Award and commended for the 2004 Best Books for Kids and Teens
Discovering the Arctic is an exciting recounting of the life of a 19th century doctor and explorer who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company and opened up vast tracts of land in the Canadian Arctic and may have been the true discoverer of the Northwest Passage. Rae discovered the fate of the failed Franklin Expedition and evidence of cannibalism on the bones he found, but he was disgraced by a slanderous campaign against his name, which resulted in a century of subsequent obscurity. Rae was one of the first Europeans to show respect for Inuit customs and to take inspiration from their Arctic survival skills. John Wilson brings this fascinating man and his times to life in an exciting narrative full of survival stories, shipwrecks and scandals. The book is illustrated with sketches, maps and archival photos.

John Wilson was born in 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his early growing up on the Island of Skye and in Paisley, near Glasgow. From 1969 to 1974, he attended the University of St. Andrews where he took an Honours B.Sc.. in Geology and never played golf once. He took a position with the Geological Survey of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In his two years there, he mapped rocks, dodged land mines and watched the country sink ever deeper into civil war. Shortly before he was due to be called into the army, John retreated back to Britain on his way to the safety of Canada. He settled on Calgary where geology was booming and the only danger was freezing to death in January. In 1979, he moved to Edmonton to take up a post with the Alberta Geological Survey. In 1988 he sold a feature article to the Globe and Mail. This fueled a smouldering mid-life crisis and he took up freelance writing full-time. With some success, John mined the experiences of his travels for articles, journalism and photo essays. He even began to express himself poetically and, with a young family, began writing children's stories. He moved to Nanaimo and then Lantzville on Vancouver Island. John has been widely published by a number of Canadian presses, with his acolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.

John Wilson's profile page

• Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens
• Short-listed, Canadian Children's Book Centre Norma Fleck Award

Wilson brings his considerable storytelling talents to Rae's life, relating the details in short, easy-to-read chapters, but losing none of the action and adventure. A fine introduction to the life of a fascinating man.

CCBN

Wilson does an admirable job of bringing this exceptional, multi-faceted man sharply into focus.

G&M