In 1901, in an effort to supplement her meager finances, sixty-two-year-old Annie Edison Taylor, a retired charm school teacher, decided to become the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Annie assumed she’d reap fiscal rewards for her stunt, and to increase her chances of survival she designed the barrel herself, supervised its construction, and found a manager to promote her daring deed. After her amazing feat in 1901, however, Taylor faced one disappointment after another, from a public seemingly uninterested in a sixty-two-year-old female celebrity to unsavory opportunists looking to capitalize on her accomplishment (e.g., one hired a younger, more attractive woman to pose as Annie; two others stole the barrel). Chris Van Allsburg’s tale of derring-do and the sexism and ageism it exposes comes in a beautifully designed package. Full-page black-and-white illustrations brim with marvelous details, not the least of which are the memorable expressions on Annie’s face. He elevates her name and her story from the footnote of history with both whimsy and compassion. (Ages 6–10)

Come meet the Queen of the Falls and witness with your own eyes her daring ride!

At the turn of the nineteenth century, a retired sixty-two-year-old 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.

She could remember standing in a park near the falls, hypnotized by the sight and sound, and holding her father's hand as they took a walk that would lead them closer. That's what everyone wonders when they see Niagara . . . How close will their courage let them get to it?

This gorgeous, imaginative picture book is from two-time Caldecott winner Chris Van Allsburg, creator of Jumanji and The Polar Express.