Why had so many people gathered to watch a barrel plunge over the waterfall?

Wouldn't tons of water pounding onto the rocks below have simply broken it to pieces?

And yet there they stood, watching and waiting, holding their breath—waiting, because they all knew the barrel was not empty!

Come and meet the Queen of the Falls and witness with your own 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.

Dive into one of the oddest adventures of all time with the two-time Caldecott medalist Chris Van Allsburg as he masterfully crafts text and illustration to chronicle the courageous and eccentric journey of Mrs. Taylor as she performs one of the most death-defying feats in American history!

From the dust jacket