Yours ’Til Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls itself serves as the narrator of this lengthy anthropologic and geologic history of the celebrated cataract. The falls’ first-person account takes readers from its ocean beginnings millions of years ago to its present-day status as a world-famous tourist attraction. Depicted by Guiberson as both observer and participant, Niagara “cascaded, rumbled, roared, and tumbled,” “was a waterfall on the Underground Railroad,” and “became a waterfall of holidays and carnivals.” Low’s painterly aerial and close-up views convey the mist-shrouded landmark’s grandeur, as archival photo renderings, b&w artifact sketches, and images of the cliffs’ erosion over time overlay sweeping scenes. Unspecified “humans with stone tools,” an explorer, daredevils, freedom-seeking enslaved people, industrialists, and tourists are all portrayed in the extensive chronology. Though lines about modern-day visitors who “sense the Stone Age maiden and Hinu, the Great Thunderer” and “gulp the fresh air of enslaved people seeking freedom” strike an unfortunately romanticizing note, the volume offers a wealth of facts about the natural wonder via an expansive scrapbook feel. A bibliography concludes. Ages 4–8. (June)