Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburg is known as an illustrator and writer of children’s books. In addition to winning the prestigious Caldecott Medal for Jumanji, he also won the same award for his 1985 book,
The Polar Express, which was also adapted into a successful film. Having graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a master’s in sculpture in 1975, Allsburg’s wife thought that his drawings would make for great illustrated children’s books since Allsburg was struggling as a sculptor. Many of Allsburg’s illustrations have been featured on covers of other children’s books, in addition to having written and illustrated 20 books of his own.
The Inspiration
When asked about what gave him the idea to write
Jumanji, Van Allsburg told Scholastic in 2004, “When I was a little boy and I would play games like Monopoly, they seemed kind of exciting, but when I was done with the game, all I had was fake money. So I thought that it would be fun and exciting if there were such as thing as a game board where whenever you landed on a square and it said something was going to happen, then it would really happen.” Sounds like Van Allsburg had a terrific idea for a movie plot! Apparently, Hollywood producers thought so too.
