Chris Van Allsburg

This week is the official launch of our largest author study of the year!

Every year, fourth graders fall in love with the work of Chris Van Allsburg.  Many fourth graders might already know a few of his more popular books (Jumanji, The Polar Express, Zathura), but they haven't seen anything yet!  It's inevitable that, after reading more of his memorable stories, he will quickly become a new favorite author.

We'll begin our author study by getting to know a little bit about his life.  Readers will visit his website, but they can also find out more about him right here!  Check this out:

Meet Chris Van Allsburg

Has anyone ever told you to turn off the TV and do something more productive?  You might think about it more seriously next time.  Chris Van Allsburg hatched his incredibly successful career as an illustrator and author of children's books when he didn't want to sit at home in the evening and watch TV.  He began to sketch pictures instead, and in those sketches he discovered stories waiting to be told.

His wife Lisa thought the sketches would make great books for children.  One evening, she brought home author and friend David Macauley to look at them.  David was so impressed that he recommended Chris to his own editor.  Chris Van Allsburg's very first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1979.

Chris Van Allsburg was born and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He lived in a neighborhood where he could find tadpoles, play baseball, and ride his go-cart down the street.  He liked to draw, but after sixth grade his interest moved to sports and other "more socially useful" activities.  He thought he might become a lawyer, but a drawing class during his first year of college rekindled his love of art.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with an art degree and also studied sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design.  he began his professional artist's life as a sculptor.  Many of his pieces (like a flying saucer colliding with an observatory) suggest qualities of humor, mystery, and storytelling similar to his later illustrations.

Chris Van Allsburg has published a new book almost every year since 1979.  Two of his books have been awarded the Caldecott Medal:  Jumanji in 1981 and The Polar Express in 1985.  He has more ideas for pictures, stories, and sculptures in his head than he has time to create.  It takes him seven months of hard work to take a book from its beginning ideas through its delivery to the printer.

His ideas most often begin as random pictures in his mind.  Those pictures are like clues to the story that is waiting to be told.  The story evolves as he asks himself, "What if?" and "What then?"  Once the whole story is in his mind, he works like the director of a movie and carefully chooses the point of view, lighting, and perspective for each picture.

Chris Van Allsburg's sense of action and illusion unique to his illustrations is a result of the variety of his choices, his technical expertise with different media, and, of course, his talent and persistence.  He said of his second Caldecott Medal, "This award...suggests that the success of art is not dependent on its nearness to perfection but to its power to communicate."

Readers, want to learn more?  Check out this Reading Rockets video interview with Chris Van Allsburg!  (Click here!)