Bruce Hiscock tells of the great flood of 1993 along the upper Mississippi River, and in words and pictures he shows what a river basin is, how it works as part of the water cycle, and what happened that spring that made the system of dams and levees fail.

No one predicted the St. Louis floods of 1993 -- not even the rivers themselves! Stemming from the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers, the floods of 1993 are charted from the rivers' origin points and put in context with other states' experiences of the year 1993. ( )

I didn't care for this book at all. I think a basic geography book gives more information than this book does. ( )

The artwork on the front of this book was interesting to me, it wasn't very detailed but it still showed so much. As I read this book I really enjoyed that it showed certain situations for certain areas. This book kind of brought all the rivers together and compared them. I would use this book while teaching about rivers in my own class because it's very informative and has a lot of facts. The pictures on the inside of the book help with the mood of this book, the words and pictures just tie each other together. ( )

This book outlines the importance of the three big rivers of the U.S. while also discussing the flood of 1993. While I am from Baton Rouge, not New Orleans, originally, I couldn't help but make connections between the preparation and clean-up efforts of the '93 floods and the levee breach from Hurricane Katrina. The illustrations of people filling sandbags and lining things out along the lawn to either clean out or toss out mirror the actual hurricane experiences of many families. I would probably use this book for a lesson series about life in different parts of the U.S., and how it differs and compares to life in my local area. ( )