Happy Birthday to Chris Van Allsburg who was born on this day in 1949. Chris is an American author and illustrator of children’s books including Jumanji and The Polar Express, both of which won him the Caldecott Medal, and Zathura.
“His books often depict fantastic, uncontrolled events and utilize sometimes brutal irony. Van Allsburg breaks out of the comfortable world of children literature to explore the darker side of human nature. For example, his book The Sweetest Fig is about a selfish man who is suddenly given the opportunity to make his wildest dreams come true. His greed is eventually his downfall. This is not an unusual moral for a story in children books, but Van Allsburg’s chilling characterization of the man brings a frightening tone to the narrative.
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, a collection of images on one side, and one sentence on the other (meant to be ‘recovered pages’ of longer books) continues the themes of darker undertones and was the inspiration for the short story “The House on Maple Street” by author Stephen King, in his collection: Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
The Wretched Stone, in which a ship’s crew is mesmerized and corrupted by the titular rock, is an allegorical tale about the negative impact of television” Source: Wikipedia.
I actually thought those were photographs until I clicked on them and looked closer. They’re amazing.
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I know, they’re gorgeous aren’t they?
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Yes. It’s beautiful work.
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I love Jumanji
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Ah, one of my favourite authors! Lovely post, Jill! 🙂
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Thanks 🙂
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Always a pleasure, Jill… 🙂
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Absolutely fell in love with VanAllberg as a student teacher years ago. When his stories were made into movies~Heaven! Enjoy your blog and so appreciate the follow of With Heart Wide Open. Blessings, Shandra
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Thanks Shandra x
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Did you ever see the children’s book My Life with the Wave illustrated by mark buehner?
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No, it’s a new one on me but it looks gorgeous, and good fun too! Hope you’re keeping well Adrienne in your little patch of heaven, it always looks like a lot of fun there in the land of milk and honey (and goats). Busy here, as you can tell by my late reply, gotta keep on trying as Freddie says. Love, from a cloudy corner of GB xx
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