If I was at a party in a Woody Allen film and someone asked me about my literary influences I would tell them about a book my aunt Liz made for me when I was a small boy entitled Aunt Liz Went Dog Sledding!

Liz lived many years in a miniature village called Kotzebue, Alaska, above the arctic circle. This is what it is like this time of year in Kotzebue. It is -29 degrees and the day lasts 3 hours and 13 minutes.

Aunt Liz Went Dog Sledding! describes a normal dog sledding trip Liz made on the frozen sound. First she woke up the dogs that were sleeping in the holes they dug for themselves in the snow. Sometimes when it snowed at night the dogs would disappear. They were tough arctic dogs and preferred to sleep inside an awful blizzard. Liz fed them chunks of frozen fish for breakfast, and then they stretched out and yipped and held contests of strength amongst themselves. They were eager to put on their harnesses and pull the sled.

The lead dogs, and Liz’s favorites, were named Zinga and Pogo. The other eight dogs were athletic and irresponsible and secretly wanted to eat aunt Liz, but Zinga and Pogo wouldn’t let them.

The book patiently describes the features of Kotzebue and includes photographs of Liz’s three wheeler, a great heap of caribou antlers, and the Arctic Tomato, which was a boat that serviced the village. It also took pains to describe how one dresses for a dog sled trip, which I was eager to know, and about the feeling of being mushed over the arctic landscape by a team of champing dogs.

The book is made out of typing paper. Liz glued snap shots to each page and wrote captions under them. It is sewn together with red yarn. It is my favorite book besides The Dutch Lovin’ Cookbook by Ian Harris. I had forgotten about if for many years but when Max became semi-conversant and we began reading a great deal of children’s books, I began thinking about Liz’s book again. Now I think about it almost all the time.

Rating: Five Stars