Fascinating story. Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1901 and she lived. The story is rather interesting. Who was Annie?

Writers are often told to give a character both a psychological and a moral shortcoming when writing. Van Allsburg decides that Annie was ‘proud’. Like Walter White in Breaking Bad, who ends up washing his students’ cars over summer, Annie is assumed to be too proud to do domestic work. But as I said, I think there’s more to it than that. Interestingly, when it comes time to get inside the barrel, Annie is described as ‘modest’ when she requires the men to turn away. ‘Modest’ is in some ways the inverse of ‘proud’. But perhaps you can be both. Also, sometimes ‘modest’ refers only to the wish not to display yourself in an exposing manner, which might be another outworking of ‘proud’. DESIRE It’s interesting to note what Van Allsburg left out. What he did not include: That a cat was sent down in a barrel a few days previously, and survived. Kids like cats, cats do well in picture books; why would Chris Van Allsburg leave this interesting detail out? Queen of the Falls is the true story of former charm school teacher, Annie Edson Taylor, who decides that the path to fame and fortune is surviving a trip over Niagra Falls in a barrel. No one expects Annie, a grandmotherly sort, to make it, but her specially-designed barrel does the job and to everyone's amazement, she has only minor injuries after the barrel ride. Annie's plan is to then tour the country speaking about her accomplishment, but no one seems to believe her...But I can understand why she did it. Annie would not have felt invisible at the age of 42. She was running her charm school and had a place in the world. By pretending to the world that she was 42, she was proabably trying to reclaim some of the contentedness she felt at age 42. THE BIG STRUGGLE It has been one hundred years, and what would you think of this world? What would you make of Kardashians and sexting and the soft scatter of our lives?

Annie plans to end her poverty by tumbling over the Niagara Falls in a cushioned barrel then finding fame and fortune. Unfortunately her plan has a hole in it. Aside from the obvious threat of death, it is a strange decision to try and pass yourself off as 20 years younger. Surely it would have been more impressive had she revealed her true age. We are impressed by unusual combinations. The combination of a grandmotherly figure performing a stunt would have drawn the crowds. I feel she should have tried instead to pass herself off as 82 rather than 42.Queen of the Fall is a collection of essays that weaves together the complex threads of life's moments, building on both shared and personal history, and always seeking transcendence. She was a elderly woman in her 60s who taught at a Charm School in Bay City MI. Her clients had dried up and she had no retirement, so she was looking for a way to make some money. Eventually, she decided on going over the Falls in a barrel to make money. Isn't that strange. She was an innovative woman at that. She designed and made her own barrel and found a publicist to drum up curiosity. She did tell the world she was in her 40s so when people actually saw her, they didn't believe it was her that went over. There is probably a narrative reason why Chris Van Allsburg did not include the cat. A cat in a picture book is as important as a human character. Readers will be as anxious about the cat as they are about the woman, leading to a double climax in which the first survival inevitably saps emotion away from the second. ANAGNORISIS When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built. Using Taylor as the heroine of his story, Chris Van Allsburg creates detailed charcoal drawings to complete Annie Taylor's life story, from widowhood to celebrity to forgotten "stunter". She was a charm school teacher who yearned for more and thought she could make money and achieve fame by her famous stunt.

She went over the falls alright, but she wasn't able to turn that into the money she had hoped. People would see her and they lost interest when they saw a grandma saying she went over the falls. How sad, right. Since there there have been 8 other people to do the same thing, the last as late as 1995. I simply can't imagine why you would want to do something like that. THE EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE — Apparently, Annie was the first to ever pull this stunt. Three men went down before (half a century before) and plunged to their deaths. Many who came after were younger, fitter and had the huge psychological advantage of knowing that it had been done before. A notable exception is Laika, the first dog to be sent into orbit, whose death during the 3 November, 1957 Sputnik 2 mission was expected from its outset. Soviet Space Dogs Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947. 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.”The artwork is amazing and beautiful. It is beyond stunning here. I can't believe how talented Chris is. The premise of the book is rather straightforward. In 1901, 62-year-old widow Annie Edson Taylor needed a way to strike it rich, after closing her Michigan charm school. Spying an article about Niagara Falls as a tourist destination, she decides to become a popular attraction too. She commissions a barrel "big enough to hold herself and a large number of pillows," hires a publicist, calls on reporters, and finds a boatman willing to tow her into the river. From this book, students can take away the lesson that everyone has dreams, ambitions and goals…even little old ladies. The paths of four migrant children from different Central American countries cross as they enter Mexico, and together they continue their journey to the United States. Researching Mrs. Taylor’s life provided details that made it clear that her story was not one that fit into a conventional narrative of the determined underdog who triumphs over the challenges and obstacles placed before him or her, and emerges with admiration and rich rewards. Annie’s story was more complicated than that—and, to me, more interesting. Chris Van Allsburg PARATEXT