Customer Reviews

Queen of the Falls

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The word "daredevil" conjures up different images for different people. Speaking for myself, when I hear it I instantly picture someone like Evel Knievel leaping over cars on a motorcycle. I do not picture sixty-two year old charm school matrons climbing into barrels. The name "Chris Van Allsburg" also conjures up a variety of interesting images. A person might think of his books The Mysteries of Harris Burdick or The Sweetest Fig (or, my personal favorite, The Stranger). And until now, they also would probably not picture sixty-two year old charm school matrons climbing into barrels. Yet now both the word and the author/illustrator have become inextricably linked to one another, and it is all because of a little old lady who died nearly one hundred years ago. For the first time, Chris Van Allsburg has put aside the fantastical for something infinitely more intriguing: Real world history with just a touch of the insane. And it all begins with the first person to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

The facts about the Niagara Falls are well known. "The water drops from a height that is as tall as a seventeen-story building." Fact of the matter is, you'd have to be nutty to even consider going over such falls. Yet that was the idea that appealed so much to Ms. Annie Edson Taylor. A former charm school teacher, Annie was sixty-two years old and in real need of money. In a flash it came to her: Go over the edge of Niagara Falls in a barrel and reap the rewards that come. Efficient, Annie commissioned the barrel she would travel in, and found folks willing to help her carry out the plan. When the time came, everything went without a hitch and best of all Annie lived to tell the tale. Unfortunately, fame and fortune were not in the cards. Folks weren't interested in hearing an old woman talk about her death-defying adventure, and on more than one occasion she found her barrel stolen or folks taking credit for her own deed. Ten years later a reporter found her and asked for her story again. Annie confessed that she didn't become rich like she wanted to, but as she said, "That's what everyone wonders when they see Niagara . . . How close will their courage let them get to it? Well, sir, you can't get any closer than I got."

This is not the first time I have encountered Ms. Taylor's story. I'm a fan of the podcast Radio Lab, which makes science palatable to English majors like myself. One such podcast told the story of Annie Taylor, and it was a sad tale. So sad, in fact, that when I picked up Queen of the Falls I naturally assumed that Van Allsburg would sweeten, cushion, and otherwise obscure some of the difficulties Annie faced after her fateful trip. To my infinite delight, I found the man to be a sterling author of nonfiction for kids. He doesn't pad the truth, but at the same time he finds that spark in a true-life story that gives it depth and meaning. On the surface, what could we possibly learn from the depressing reminder of an old woman who did something risky, succeeded, failed to be adequately compensated, and then died poor after all? It all comes down to that interview Annie conducted ten years after her thrilling run. Van Allsburg zeroes in on Ms. Taylor's words. He gives her the last say in the book and manages to focus Annie's story not on its subsequent failure, but on the accomplishment that belongs to her alone: She really was the first person to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and to this day she "remains the only woman to have gone over the falls alone."

I assumed that this book marked a startling departure for Mr. Van Allsburg. As the man behind the gentle surrealism of Jumanji or The Polar Express, a story about a real-life sixty-two year-old stuntwoman sounded like a whole new world. Yet in his Author's Note at the end, Van Allsburg notes that "When I decided to write about Annie, I believed I was undertaking a project quite different from the fantasies and surreal tales I'd become accustomed to creating. This was not the case. There is something decidedly fantastic and not quite real about Niagara Falls, about Annie's adventure, and about the stories that can unfold when imagination, determination, and foolhardiness combine to set humans off in pursuit of their goals."

To the best of my knowledge Chris Van Allsburg has always written his own books. Librarians like myself may think of him primarily as an artist, but it is his storytelling that sets him apart from the pack. In this, his first nonfiction title, the man lays out the story of Annie's life and adventure in such a way that folks can't help but get caught up in it. He knows where to break up the action and how much to put in. It's also interesting to note that for all her age, the author refers to his heroine more often than not as "Annie". He brings the reader closer to his subject. Were he to refer to her as "Ms. Taylor", the subliminal message to child readers would be that they were reading about someone like one of their teachers or elders. The subtle difference of substituting her last name for her first brings Annie closer to them. It gives her more dimensions than as a mere elderly daredevil.

I was fascinated by Van Allsburg's choices of how to present one scene or another too. Picture book illustrators have reinterpreted the lives of famous (and not so famous) people for decades. But Van Allsburg's take on Annie felt different, and I tried to figure out why this was. There is a moment in this book when a down-on-her-luck Ms. Edison scans The Bay City Bugle for jobs or ideas. On the left-hand page you see her resting her head on her hand, seemingly uninterested. On the right-hand page it's as if a light bulb has gone on in her brain. Everything about her is electrified and in the midst of her idea she has inadvertently knocked the flower vase on her table over. It's the "Ah ha!" moment, and feels almost cinematic. And for that scene I found myself wondering if it was almost TOO cinematic for a real world story. After all, Mr. Allsburg is taking the liberty of imagining what Ms. Edison looked like at that time. Fortunately, this feeling passed almost as quickly as it arrived. Well, of course he had to extrapolate what she felt. That's what artists do. What's important is that every picture in this book is accounted for in other histories of Annie's adventure and life. Just because this particular artist is better at capturing images in a realistic way, what makes his book any different from the thousands of other biographical titles out there where folks illustrate the lives of the famous?

For some reason this book felt almost more fantastical than your normal illustrated fare. Maybe it's the unexpected shock of seeing Mr. Van Allsburg tackle the real world. Under his hand you'd half expect Annie's barrel to crest the edge of the falls and then float serenely onward and upwards into the sky. To combat this feeling, Van Allsburg pulls out all his writing chops. He ratchets up the tension when Annie is placed in the barrel. Not only do you get to see her barrel itself, but he also includes quite a few interior shots, so that there's no doubt as to where exactly she is and what she's feeling at a given moment. The most impressive image in this book, though, comes right after the author has written, "Fred Truesdale had told her the water at the very edge of the falls would be still for a moment. When she felt that, he warned, she must hold on for dear life and pray. Which was exactly what happened next. For a few seconds -one ... two ... three - Annie floated slowly and upright. She could hear the falls roaring, even through her thick oak barrel." Then the reader turns the page and encounters a sight that makes your heart drop. For two pages, Van Allsburg has dedicated himself to replicating the sheer majesty of the falls, from the top. That sheer drop confronts you, and even as you make out the figure of the barrel a mere two feet from the edge, the text simply reads, " `Oh Lord,' she whispered, and then she was gone." Natural, beautiful, you-are-there dramatic tension. It's the kind of moment you wish every children's non-fiction picture book contained. It gives respect to what the subject went through. The artist is also no stranger to using black and white as a medium, but lately his books have taken on a sepia tone. This color palette didn't make a ton of sense when creating books like Probuditi! but it certainly fits the bill in a book like Queen of the Falls perfectly! You get the feeling that you're really seeing turn-of-the-century stills from the life of Annie Edison.

Considering that this is a work of nonfiction, it seems odd to say that the book this reminded me of the most was Shaun Tan's The Arrival. Yet both books take realistic pictures and use their sepia-toned worlds to inform our own. That said, the book that would probably pair better in terms of subject matter would have to be the Julie Cummins title Women Daredevils: Thrills, Chills, and Frills (in which Annie does indeed make an appearance). I've always loved Van Allsburg's magical realism fantasies, but this new venture into reality itself is so appealing that I can only hope that he continues in this vein for some time. A book that honors its subject and grants her posthumous dignity.

For ages 4-9

Chris Van Allsburg's latest picture book, a biography, is beautifully illustrated, but the story falls short of the mark. As always, Van Allsburg's black-and-white illustrations are realistic and magical. But the illustrations themselves did not save the story, which while interesting, was a little too unevenly paced to really be a stand-out biography. Queen of the Falls tells the tale of Annie Taylor, the 62-year-old school teacher who was the first person to successfully go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The beginning page of the book starts in the middle of the action, and then Van Allsburg flashes back to Annie's past history as a charm school teacher. The exposition and background of Annie's story dragged a bit, and then the middle of the story (Annie's preparation for and subsequent barrel ride over the falls) is full of drama and suspense. After Annie's Falls' adventure, the end of her tale again becomes slow and starts to lose the reader. I read this aloud to a class of 5th graders, and while some of them were intrigued by Annie Taylor's story, some of them were clearly bored by the end of the book. I would recommend this book to upper elementary students who like biographies and non-fiction stories, and to any child or adult who wants to learn about the first person to ever successfully go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel.

NOTE: I agree with another reviewer here who said that the story leaves the reader with an "unsettled" feeling. This is certainly not a "happy ending" kind of book, which will make children smile. It will make them think, however.

"An odd, unsettling meditation on fame."--Kirkus Reviews

Exactly. It is an interesting story, and as always, the illustrations are simply stunning. But this is not a feel-good book that will leave the young reader aglow. What I would HOPE is that it is a book that will start the young reader on some deep thoughts about the price of fame, the needs of the elderly in reduced circumstances, and the fact that there are those who take advantage of same. Unsettling indeed.

Strengths: This book is typical Van Allsburg with an intriguing story, never before told in picture book format. What is especially interesting is that this is a true story. I guess sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction. The author starts by putting us at the top of the waterfall with Annie, just as she is about to go over the falls (without telling us who is in the barrel). Then he explains why Annie decided to do such a crazy stunt, she hoped it would make her rich, so she wouldn't have to try to eke out a living as a store clerk or cleaning lady. The same reasons that people do such seemingly crazy stunts today, fame and fortune. The writing is smooth-flowing and tells the story well, but it's the illustrations that make the story stand out. Unfortunately, for Annie she wasn't young and beautiful and as a result the public wasn't interested in hearing her story. The facial expressions are fantastic and show clearly the feelings of the people involved, the spectators, barrel makers, Annie herself, and her 'manager.' Normally I prefer color illustrations, but Van Allsburg's are so superb that color doesn't seem to matter, in fact the black and white seem to help delineate the feeling of the historical era.

Weaknesses: I have to admit, I don't really see any weaknesses in this particular book, except maybe the length. Like many of Van Allsburg's books, this one has a lot of writing, making it more appropriate as a read-a-loud for an older audience.

Although the (true) story is not as compelling as his other books, allsburg's illustrations are worth adding this book to your library.

Van Allsburg gives us a close-up and personal look into the face of madness in this inspired history of the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Tall pages dense with text contain a story nearly long enough to merit novella status in this exploration of a little known adventuress. Van Allsburg truly shines in his black and white pencil illustrations that lend heart to the story. He perfectly captures the Eureka moment when 62 year-old retired charm school teacher, Annie Edson Taylor, decides her fortunes will be made once she attempts the stunt. Her eyes gleam madly, as a flower vase is heedlessly tipped over at her table.

Taylor's endearing and expressive range of emotions are displayed in full force in the next few pages. An angry scowl when ridiculed at the barrel-maker's shop, her shrewd squinting once the barrel-making is underway, and her quietly smug satisfaction in the office of Frank Russell, who was to become her manager, hint at her obsessive drive to complete a ridiculous and seemingly impossible task. The illustrations featuring her stout frame and grey-bunned head backing into the finished pillow-lined barrel, paired with an alternate view, a close-up of her face, as she cheerfully waves from inside the barrel as they nail her in, play with perspective and can't fail to fascinate readers. Her grimace as she's bandied about inside the claustrophobic environment ratchets up the tension, and the moment when she goes over, with a double-page spread of the Falls in all their glory and the single sentence "'Oh Lord,' she whispered, and then she was gone." stand in stark contrast to the rest of the text-heavy pages.

After surviving the trip, albeit badly bruised and shaken up, sadly, Taylor finds the crowds she'd hoped to impress at state fairs and the like fail to materialize. She finds herself the victim of theft, as first Russell, and then her new manager, Billy Banks, both turn on her, and attempt to steal her barrel. The story ends on an upbeat note with Annie remarking that at least she can say, "I am the one who did it."

The book is appended with an author's note, a list of "successful" barrel riders, a very short bibliography, and a photograph of the real Annie Edson Taylor, looking schoolmarmish posing next to the barrel in question, which is much narrower at the bottom than I'd imagined and covered in old fashioned font declaring Taylor, "Heroine of the Falls."

Pair this unusual offering with Mordecai Gerstein's The Man Who Walked Between the Towers or any biography of Harry Houdini for a slice of unconventional, dare-devil history. Recommended for ages 5-12.

I bought this book because my son (age 5) loves waterfalls. I also liked that it was based on a true story. This book breaks a lot of typical stereotypes that old people (anyone over 40 according to my son) can't do much, girls don't do anything cool, etc. The book kept my sons attention and he wants to take it to share with his class. I also really liked it.

It's always disconcerting when a writer jumps genres, so to speak. Van Allsburg has always been the king of my heart for his amazing fantasy children's picture books. I thought this would be yet another one, but, instead, Van Allsburg has decided to tell the true story of the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

I'm not always happy when nonfiction writers try fiction or vice versa, but that did not happen this time; Van Allsburg told this story perfectly. His pictures, as always, are breathtaking. I was delighted with this book.

I love Niagara Falls, it is awe inspiring and if you haven't been I urge you to go. I have been many, many times. Every time I'm amazed by the power and beauty of the falls. We took our children this summer, though they've been before it was the first time they will really be able to look back and remember it when they are grown.

While we were there we took the trolley tour on the American side and one of the stories they talk about during that tour is Annie Edson Taylor going over the falls in her barrel. We also went to the IMAX movie that depicts Annie's adventure, so when my children saw Chris Van Allsburg's book they were very excited to read about Annie.

We all loved the story with Chris's illustrations. If you love the falls or Chris Van Allsburg I encourage you to check out his newest book. Another Falls favorite is 'Mirette and Belini Cross Niagara Falls' by Emily Arnold McCullyMirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls

On October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel - as a matter of fact, it was on her 63rd birthday! Now, some one hundred and ten years later, award winning children's author (and illustrator), Chris Van Allsburg, has turned Ms. Taylor's story into a great book. The book tells the great woman's story in an entertaining and easy-to-understand manner, with the wonderful black-and-white illustrations providing an excellent companion to the story.

Overall, I really liked this book. I loved the illustrations, which look rather like old sepia photographs, but yet are quite entertaining. Also, the story was very interesting, and succeeded in holding the interest of both myself and my seven-year-old daughter! Yeah, it's a great book, and we both enjoyed it immensely!