About the Book:

Jumanji is a Caldecott Award winning book, which means was the best picture book out of every book published in 1982.  This intriguing story is about a brother and sister who were bored one afternoon when they were left alone and find a board game in a local park.  Now this game is not like any game you have ever played.  The directions to this game told the brother and sister that they had to play until they reached the very end.  After each roll of the dice from the children real creatures and adventures come into their home that create chaos to say the least.  It was not until the Judy, the sister, reaches the golden city and yells the name of the game that every creature that had come and events that had happened were restored as if nothing even happened.  The siblings took the game quickly back where they found it telling no one of the adventure they just had to find friends of theirs walking out of the park with the game in their hands.

About the Author and Illustrator:

Chris Van Allsburg was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he graduated with a degree in sculpture.  Upon graduation from U of M Chris attended graduate school in Providence, Rhode Island for a masters degree in sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design.  Soon after he received his masters degree he began to show his sculpture at New York City galleries.  His artwork soon won the reputation of wonderful imagination in which everyone became to love.  Hearing that Chris Van Allsburg was a famous sculpture may shock you for he is now a author and illustrator of many award winning books.  Along with creating sculpture Chris also drew pictures that those close to him noticed they would be great in books.  The publishing company Houghton Mifflin thought the same thing and quickly signed him on his first book.  This publishing company also published fifteen other books that he wrote and illustrated.  He has been awarded the Caldecott Award for many of his books and a couple of his books Jumanji and The Polar Express have been made into movies.  His success in writing and illustrating children's books still remains and he says they are " a place where an ordinary world of comfort and regularity meets a world of fantasy, magic, and sometimes even menace."