Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburgis an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanjiand The Polar Express, both of which he also wrote; both were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator he was 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth18 June 1949
CountryUnited States of America
I have very positive memories of reading biographies of unusual Americans as a child.
The whole idea of being mesmerized and not in control of your own actions is fascinating and a little spooky. I remember hearing about someone who'd gone to a magic act, and a person in the audience had become hypnotized by observing too closely what magician was doing on stage, and thought it was spooky to lose your consciousness that way.
The crudest thing I've done as a teacher was to require students to write a national anthem for their country and sing it themselves.
Brainstorming, for me, takes place in my bed at night between the time I turn out my lights and I finally fall asleep. It is not a very violent storm, but what's happening is I am just thinking about different ideas and maybe things I've seen that day that I think might make a good story.
'The Polar Express' began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, 'What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?'
A good picture book should have events that are visually arresting - the pictures should call attention to what is happening in the story.
When somebody says, 'This must be a children's book,' basically they're saying, 'You must be a child.' And so my answer is, 'Well, yes, I guess I am a child.' But I don't think of myself that way.
It's not in the interest of the artist to think of his market.
I've heard stories about authors filled with this kind of Lotto-winner hubris. I'm a Dutch boy from the Midwest. We don't have hubris.
It seems to me that not only the writing in most children's books condescends to kids, but so does the art. I don't want to do that.
It was the case for a number of years that I was doing a book a year, but that was back when I was part-time teaching - and since 1991, I've been a parent, so that cuts into the time!
I try to satisfy the desires that people have to have their books personalized. That's a value, or feature, of bibliophilia that may vanish. How do you get your e-book signed? The idea of people standing in line to get my signature in their book, it's hard to turn them away.
They don't send people from large corporations to hire people to make sculptures.
As long as I can remember, I've always loved to draw. But my interest in drawing wasn't encouraged very much.