This is the fourth in Holling C. Holling's handsome and distinguished story-book series on America, past and present. It covers gloriously the whole Mississippi River valley, telling a fascinating and dramatic story in text and pictures, and re-creating as it goes the varied, rich life of that fabled region.

Minn, a snapping turtle, was born at the Minnesota headwaters of the Mississippi. She learned early that her life would not be easy, for right after hatching she lost a hind leg to a hunter's bullet. A young Indian protected her for the next few weeks, painted Minnesota's abbreviation on her small shell, and started "MINN" on her way down the Mississippi River.

Minn's name was prophetic. In Indian it means "water"—and Minn became the very spirit of this uneasy liquid. She could not settle down in a permanent home, as did other turtles. With only three feet to battle floods, she was at their mercy. Year by year the Great River pushed her along its two thousand five hundred miles—from near Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, across the breadth of America.

Leaving pine forests, Minn passed through quiet farming country, noisy factory towns, peaceful plantations. She saw her mint-green northern River turn to chocolate with the Missouri's mud. She watched as it gulped the whole Ohio, only to wriggle hungrily on. She discovered other things her River bed swallowed—ancient weapons, steamboats, forgotten cities—telling of a vast land blessed (and cursed) by shifting waters. Playing no favorites, the Great River has always created—and destroyed. It almost destroyed this trusting turtle.

That she now lives safely (perched on sunken pirate treasure) does not astonish Minn. It is all in the natural course of experience for the adventurous and rugged heroine.

With pictures and word, Holling Clancy Holling has originated another unusual and informative panorama of America. His exciting full color illustrations and beautifully accurate marginal drawings have helped create a book comparable only to Mr. Holling's earlier successes, Paddle-to-the-Sea, Tree in the Trail, and Seabird.

From the dust jacket