I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Great biography for kids about the man who walked across Niagara Falls. There's information about his early life and how he became such a man. I think that this kind of biographies can inspire children to think big about their futures.

Action-packed and full of daring feats of bravery, Donna Jenell Bowman's thoroughly researched narrative nonfiction tells the story of The Great Blondin, Jean-Francois Gravelet. From an early age, Gravelet showed a natural talent for sure-footedness from a balance beam to the tightrope with his family's circus troupe. The Great Blondin became known as the Kind of the Tightrope. As The Great Blondin's daring reputation grew, so did his balancing feats until he decided to attempt something that no one else had done: walking across Niagra Falls on a tight rope. Bowman's exciting storytelling paired with Adam Gustavson's bold, colorful illustrations captures Gravelet's story in excellently. The author's note included

Such an interesting story, I had never heard of this man before and Donna Janell Bowman did a fantastic job of bringing him to life!

This is an amazing picture book about an amazing tighrope walker who was known as the Great Blondin.

Blondin walked across the Niagara falls, not just once, but as many of 15 times.

But, not only did he do the walk, he had to set up the rope to do the walk. He had to calculate how much rope to use, and how taunt to make it.

So, the amazing thing about this picture book is that it also explains how he figured it all out, how he prepared for this feat.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5182" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/king-of-the-typeoope.png" alt="" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5181" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/king-of-the-tiperope.png" alt="" />

Bloudin was French, and the author throws in little French words here and there in context.

Great book, if to only teach children how much is involved in planning such a stunt.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book avialble for an honest review.

This is the sort of non-fiction picture book I really like. I don't even have to have heard of the person the book is about; in fact, if I haven't heard of them, it's even better because I've learned something I didn't know before.

The Great Blondin was a French tightrope walker who crossed Niagara Falls in 1859. This story talks about his life, his quest to always do more, and the eventual setup and execution of his international stunt. Included at the end are more biographical facts and a timeline. The illustrations are great and work really well to complement the text (which is interesting enough on its own).

When people said the stunt couldn't be done, Blondin ignored them and just went about his work. There's a lot of physics involved in setting up such a stunt. The public perhaps doesn't appreciate how much goes on behind the scenes when they just show up to watch the performer succeed (or fail).

I really enjoyed this one, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting picture-book biography.