Queen of the Falls

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 
hosted today by Apple With Many Seeds

Houghton Mifflin

(pub. 4.4.2010)  40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor and illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg

C haracter: Annie Edson Taylor

 

O verview from jacket flap: 

      "Come and meet the Queen of the Falls and witness with your won eyes her daring ride!
       At the turn of the nineteenth century, a retired charm school instructor named Annie Edson Taylor, seeking fame and fortune, decided to do something that no one in the world had ever done before - she would go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel..."

 

T antalizing taste: 

       "'When I was nine years old,' she said, 'I stood here with my father, in this very spot. I'd never seen anything like that waterfall. It looked like the end of the world, beautiful and dreadful, all at once.'"

and something more:  I thought this book was perfect for today's Nonfiction Monday roundup at Apples With Many Seeds because it has the Canada - United States connection of Niagara Falls.  The photograph of Annie Edson Taylor, born in 1838, in Chris Van Allsburg's Author's Note captures the fascination of the picture book biography, Queen of the Falls. In her prim and proper dress, she does not look the part of a daredevil who would squeeze herself into a barrel she designed for her ride over Niagara Falls.  I can't imagine just riding down a river in that barrel, much less over the Niagara Falls!