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
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.
I have lots of ideas. The problem for me has always been which one to do.
I take my ideas from my experiences.
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?
My ideas are not meant to suggest dreams or reality, but a surreal quality.
The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what's fascinating to me
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.