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
Some people may contend that there is no image more charming that a child holding a puppy or kitten. But for me that's a distant second. When I see a child clutching a book... to his or her tiny bosom, I'm moved. Children can possess a book in a way they can never possess a video game, a TV show, or a Darth Vader doll. A book comes alive when they read it. They give it life themselves by understanding it.
The Polar Express is about faith, and the power of imagination to sustain faith. It's also about the desire to reside in a world where magic can happen, the kind of world we all believed in as children, but one that disappears as we grow older.
The theory of isolation of certain tasks in certain hemispheres of the brain suggests I shouldn't even be able to speak, never mind write.
I think parents generally know what's best for their children. But I suppose it's possible to be overprotective.
I think, for the most part, our culture embraces that artists are born, not made.
It did occur to me that certainly African-Americans are not underserved in picture books, but those books are almost all about specifically black experiences.
Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic.
I believe that there will be many things that happen to me in my life that I will not be able to explain. Some of those might be magic. I'm not sure.
Peter Rabbit's not a rabbit. Peter Rabbit is a proxy for the child who reads the book, and they imagine themselves in the rabbit's position.
I'm always a bit disappointed when I've finished working on a book.
What kids are exposed to on television is more frightening and horrifying than what they see in my books.
I am never really surprised at the way my books take shape. They are just not as perfect as I'd like them to be.
Even the most complicated stories start with a very simple premise.
As the years went by I became a writer and illustrator, although exclusively of fantasies.