The world's most beloved wire walkers are back! In this adventure, Mirette and Bellini sail to America, where they have accepted an invitation to cross Niagara Falls. Mirette soon discovers that the usual risks of high-wire walking are intensified by cutthroat competition. It's courage and skill that bring Mirette and Bellini through even the toughest challenges and make both Mirette and this book a winner.

One day, a mysterious stranger arrives at a boardinghouse of the widow Gateau- a sad-faced stranger, who keeps to himself. When the widow's daughter, Mirette, discovers him crossing the courtyard on air, she begs him to teach her how he does it. But Mirette doesn't know that the stranger was once the Great Bellini- master wire-walker. Or that Bellini has been stopped by a terrible fear. And it is she who must teach him courage once again. Emily Arnold McCully's sweeping watercolor paintings carry the reader over the rooftops of nineteenth-century Paris and into an elegant, beautiful world of acrobats, jugglers, mimes, actors, and one gallant, resourceful little girl.

Mirette and the Great Bellini sweep all of Europe with their act on the high wire, but when Bellini is arrested after a performance in St. Petersburg, Mirette is challenged to master the Death Walk to save him from prison. The sequel to the Caldecott Medal-winning Mirette on the High Wire.

"A fresh and moving story of a mother's dedication to acquire a coat for her daughter in post-World War II hard times. Anna's mother decides to trade the few valuables she has left for wool and for the services of a spinner, a weaver, and a tailor. Lobel's pictures do a tremendous job of evoking the period. Insightful and informative, this may make children consider how precious the ordinary can become in times of turmoil."--(starred review) Booklist

She could remember standing in a park near the falls, hypnotized by the sight and sound, and holding her father’s hand as they took a walk that would lead them closer. That’s what everyone wonders when they see Niagara . . . How close will their courage let them get to it? At the turn of the nineteenth century, a retired sixty-two-year-old 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. Come meet the Queen of the Falls and witness with your own eyes her daring ride!

When a new bridge is built over the river, the happiest person in the town must be the first to cross it.

Applaud Matt Tavares’s latest feat — a gripping tale of real-life daredevilry perfectly balanced by stunning illustrations. “Monsieur Blondin is to cross Niagara Falls this afternoon, or perish in the attempt.” — Troy Daily Times, June 30, 1859 When the Great Blondin announced that he was going to walk from America to Canada across the Niagara River on a rope that was more than 1,100 feet long and just 3 inches wide, hanging 160 feet above the raging river, people came from everywhere. Some came to watch him cross. Some came to watch him fall. Some thought he wouldn’t show up at all. But he did show up. And he did walk across the river. And then he did something else amazing. He crossed the river on that tightrope again and again, adding another death-defying flourish each time. Matt Tavares’s gorgeous, riveting account of the daredevil of Niagara Falls is sure to hold readers in its grip, just as Blondin's feats enthralled those spectators on the cliffs more than one hundred and fifty years ago.

Explains the importance of reading aloud to children, offers guidance on how to set up a read-aloud atmosphere in the home or classroom, and recommends titles to select.