Meet Author/Illustrator Chris Van Allsburg

1. Meet Author/Illustrator Chris Van Allsburg

2. What are we going to do? We are going to learn about Chris Van Allsburg and his jobs of being an author and an illustrator. We are going to look at the characters, setting, problem, and surprises In some of his books! We will begin with his first published book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, 1979. We will be using this website often: http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/faq.html

3. "its not bad to be different. Sometimes it's the mark of being very very talented." — Chris Van Allsburg “At first, I see pictures of a story in my mind. Then creating the story comes from asking questions of myself. I guess you might call it the 'what if - what then' approach to writing and illustration. “Chris Van Allsburg “At first, I see pictures of a story in my mind. Then creating the story comes from asking questions of myself. I guess you might call it the 'what if - what then' approach to writing and illustration. “Chris Van Allsburg “There was a great deal of peer recognition to be gained in elementary school by being able to draw well. One girl could draw horses so well, she was looked upon as a kind of sorceress.” Chris Van Allsburg "I don't think ordinary things are very interesting, so I try to imagine a world that is less ordinary." — Chris Van Allsburg

4. Meet Chris Van Allsburg the Illustrator What medium do you use to draw your pictures? I use many different things. I use charcoal pencils. I use colored pencils, pastels. I use a little watercolor sometimes. I use pen and ink, and I use something a little different for each book because that way it is always interesting for me to make the pictures. What does it take to write and illustrate a book? It takes me between 7 and 9 months to write the story and make the pictures that become a book. The picture making part takes much longer then the writing part. In almost every case, the original pictures I make are much larger then they appear in the finished books. Why are some of your books in black and white and the others in color? I did not study painting or drawing when I was in college learning about art. I studied sculpture. I drew pictures of the sculptures I planned to make, and I took a few required drawing classes. When I was 29 years old and wrote my first book, making pictures with a charcoal pencil was all I really knew how to do. I didn't feel bad that my pictures were not in color because I like black and white pictures, as well as black and white photographs and movies. As time went by, I became more interested in picture making and taught myself to use different material to make color pictures. Materials like dry and oil pastels, craypas, crayons, colored pencils, and paint. Now I decide if a book should be black and white or color as a result of a how I imagine the story while I am thinking about it. When I tell myself a story, I see it in my imagination, like a short movie. Sometimes I see the stories in black and white and sometimes I see the stories in color. I'm not sure why.

5. Biography Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18th, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947. When Chris was 3 yrs. old his family moved to the edge of Grand Rapids. When Chris was in 6th grade his family moved again to East Grand Rapids. The street he lived on looked like the street and houses on the front of Polar Express. Chris attended East Grand Rapids junior and senior high school. He was interested in math and science and did not, believe it or not, take any art classes while there. In the fall of 1967, Chris began his academic endeavor The University of Michigan, he majored in sculpture.

6. Biography While there he learned bronze casting, wood carving, resin molding and other techniques. He graduated in 1972 and went to graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to continue his study of sculpture. From there Chris went to the renowned Rhode Island School of Design from where he earned an MFA. He married and settled in Providence Rhode Island, where he still lives today with his wife and two daughters. It was his wife, Lisa, an elementary school teacher who first suggested that Chris illustrate a picture book. Though still involved in making sculptures, Chris set aside some time and created the story and pictures that became The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, 1979. Since then, Chris has written and illustrated 15 books and has illustrated three others that were written by Mark Helprin.

7. Biography In 1991, Chris and Lisa became parents when their daughter Sophia was born. In 1995, their second daughter, Anna was born. Chris lives in Providence RI and works in his 3rd floor studio. For recreation and amusement, he rides his bike and plays tennis.

8. List of books by Chris Van Allsburg • Picture Books: • Garden of Abdul Gasazi, the (1979) • Jumanji (1981) • Ben's Dream (1982) • Wreck of the Zephyr, the (1982) • Mysteries of Harris Burdick, the (1984) • Polar Express, the (1985) • Stranger, the (1986) • Z Was Zapped, the (1987) • Two Bad Ants (1988) • Just a Dream (1990) • Wretched Stone, the (1991) • Widow's Broom, the (1992) • Sweetest Fig, the (1993) • Bad Day at Riverbend (1995) • Zathura (2002) • Probuditi! (2006) • Queen of the Falls (2011)

9. List of books Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg • Swan Lake (1989) • A City in Winter (1996) • The Veil of Snows (1997)

10. Find Fritz Fritz is the bull terrier with the dark eye patch that first appeared in The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. While Chris Van Allsburg does not own a dog, his brother-in-law once owned an English bull terrier very similar to Fritz, and that dog served as an inspiration for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. Can YOU find Fritz in every book? I don’t want to give away all of Fritz’s hiding places, but I will get you started. In The Polar Express he is the puppet on the bedknob on the first page. That’s it, no more hints. But, I guarantee, if YOU look hard enough, you’ll find Fritz. Check out Chris Van Allsburg talking about Fritz on channel 5.

11. How did Fritz come to be? Why do you put your dog in all your books? Van Allsburg: “When I wrote The Garden of Abdul Gasazi , I knew that I wanted a particular kind of dog to put into the pictures. When I draw things, I like to have models, to look at the thing I am drawing. So the dog that I wanted was a bull terrier, but unfortunately, I did not know one. My brother-in-law wanted to buy a dog at that time, and I talked him into getting a bull terrier. Now I had my model. This dog was named Winston, and I drew many pictures of him when I drew pictures for The Garden . Not long after I finished the book, Winston was, I am sorry to say, hit by a car. Because I was thankful to Winston for the help he'd given me, I decided that I would have him in each of my books.”

12. Publication date: 1979 • Caldecott Honor Book 1980 • New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year • Boston Globe–Horn Book Award • ALA Notable Book for Children • Reading Rainbow Review Book • First book by Chris Van Allsburg Turn to channel 2 for a video clip for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/videoclips.html The Garden of Abdul Gasazi

13. Illustrations from The Garden of Abdul Gaszi • The flower pattern on the rug near the couch is also repeated several times in the Gasazi adventure - can you find them? But Alan's adventure may not be a dream after all. Can you find any hints that it isn't a dream?

14. The Stranger This story opens with Farmer Bailey driving down the road and thinks he has just run over a deer but to his shock it is a man! The stranger came home with Farmer Bailey and his wife realizes he can speak. The family is not sure who this man is or where he came from so they decide to get the local doctor to come out and check on the stranger. He wasn't sure if the man had a fever because the mercury in the thermometer would not rise, broken, he thought. The stranger was helping the Farmer out in the fields on a very hot day and, amazingly, no sweat. One day the man was looking over the hills at the trees and their beautiful colors and looked at the trees around the Bailey house, they were different. He seemed to want the leaves to all be like those over on the hills. He picked up one of the green leaves from the Bailey’s yard and blew on it, hmmm. After that, the stranger left quickly from the farm. Now, every year the trees on the farm are green a week later than the trees to the north. Every year in the frost on the windows is etched “See you next fall”. Teacher’s guide: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/hmco/Stranger_TG.pdf

15. This book is prefaced with a letter from Chris Van Allsburg himself, explaining the book’s origins. “I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named Peter Wenders,” Van Allsburg begins. He goes on to explain that many years earlier, a man named Harris Burdick stopped by the office of Peter Wenders, who then worked for a publisher of children’s books choosing stories and pictures to be made into books. Burdick brought one drawing from each of fourteen stories he had written as a sample for Mr. Wenders. Fascinated by the drawings, Wenders told Burdick he wanted to see the rest of his work as soon as possible. Promising to bring the stories in the next day, Burdick left – never to be seen again. Mr. Wenders held onto the pictures and captions until Mr. Van Allsburg saw them himself. He reproduced the pictures and captions hoping to inspire many other children to write stories as well. • ALA Notable Book for Children • Booklist Editors' Choice • Boston Globe/Horn Book Award • Horn Book Fanfare Selection • New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year

16. Jumanji This Caldecott Award winning book has been intriguing people since it first came out. For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, it's the story of a bored brother and sister, left on their own for the afternoon, who find the board game, Jumanji, under a tree in the park. The instructions, on a note attached to the box, are firm: once started, the game must be played to the finish. When the children play the game, each adventure on the board brings the real creatures and events to life and into their home, creating danger and chaos. It isn't until Judy reaches Jumanji, the golden city at the end of the board, and yells the name that everything disappears, broken things are made whole and all is normal. The children put the game back where they found it, telling no one, only to watch children of friends of their parents who are known for not reading directions, take the game. Publication date: 1982 Caldecott Medal winner 1982 New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award School Library Journal, Best Books of the Year ALA Notable Book for Children Booklist Editors' Choice IRA/CBC Children's Choice 1995 blockbuster movie starring Robin Williams

17. Let’s take a look at the artwork in Jumanji. It's interesting to note the way Van Allsburg gives great texture and detail to some things while leaving other things almost blurry or flat. Look at the back of the children in the picture with the adults. How carefully he did Judy's hair; you can see every strand in her braids and the folds in Peter's shirt get equal attention, but look at the woman's throat. There are no lines and her pearls look flat. The flowers in the foreground are carefully sculpted and Peter and Judy's hands look very real but the man standing beside Peter has strangely flat fingers. Not letting us see the faces of the adults is a nice touch. It's the kids who are important here. As in any successful picture book, the illustrations are at least as important as the text, so look carefully. They're done in gray tones with something called Conte dust and Conte pencil and, like much of Van Allsburg's work, they have a surreal quality.

18. The Z was Zapped Publication date: 1987• ALA Notable Book for Children• Booklist Editors' Choice http://www.polarexpress.com/sites/default/files/icme/zapped_tg.pdf The Z Was Zapped is a delightful alphabet book in the form of a play in twenty-six acts, performed by the brave and self-sacrificing "Caslon Players." One by one in alphabetical order, each letter appears on the stage experiencing some sort of predicament. The A, for example, stands up in the midst of a rain of falling rocks. As we turn the page, we read, "The A was in an Avalanche." Then we see the B, missing its top half, with the gigantic mouth of a hungry dog hovering overhead. We must turn the page, however, before we can read, "The B was badly Bitten." On through the alphabet we go, watching the letters suffer alliterative mishaps and surprising situations—all the way to the zapping of the Z. Each page gives us the fun of guessing what words will describe the picture we have just seen. *Find Fritz:Fritz can only be the dog who badly bites the B!

19. Bad Day at Riverbend Riverbend is a sleepy western town, "just a couple dozen buildings alongside a dusty road." Nothing ever happens in Riverbend until the morning Sheriff Ned Hardy sees a brilliant red light briefly appear and then fade into the sky. Soon the stagecoach pulls into town. Instead of their usual black-and-white outlines (just like everything else in Riverbend), the townspeople are horrified to see that the coach's horses are covered with messy, greasy red stripes. Ned Hardy decides to go and look for the missing stagecoach driver. As he follows the wagon's trail to the west, he sees that the ground is covered with the same greasy red stuff. Ned soon finds the bewildered coach driver sitting on the ground, his face completely filled in with different colored stripes. As he rides back into Riverbend, Ned sees that many of the buildings have been colored in as well. The townspeople are gathered inside the hotel, avoiding the flashes of light that seem to be leaving the greasy stuff behind. Ned decides to ride in the direction of the lights to "put an end to it" and leaves town with a posse of men. As they look over a hill, they see a strange thing: a man made entirely of the greasy red stuff, "as tall as a cottonwood tree and as skinny as a broomstick." Convinced that the stranger is responsible for the town's trouble, Ned and his men gallop over the hill to try to stop him. As soon as they cross the hill, they are frozen in the bright light that suddenly fills the sky . . . and we see the arm of a child with crayon in hand reaching toward the cowboys, who are now quite "colored in." The last pages show a full-color pastel drawing of a child hard at work on a coloring book and then walking out the door, leaving the "Cowboy Coloring Book" closed on the table. "And then the light went out," reads the last page. Teaching guide http://www.polarexpress.com/sites/default/files/icme/badday_tg.pdf Publication date: 1986 ALA Notable Book for Children

20. An illustration from Bad Day at Riverbend.

21. The Sweetest Fig This is a story about a dentist, Monsieur Bibot and his dog, Marcel One morning he has a lady show up at his office. One morning with no appointment and a toothache. When the dentist pulls her tooth she tells him she has no money to pay him with and then pulls two figs from her pocket. She tells him they will make his dreams come true. Bibot thinks the woman is crazy and shoved her out the office door. That night he decided to have one of the figs for a snack, it was the sweetest fig he had ever eaten. The next day when he goes to walk his dog he realizes that he is in his underwear outside! Then the Eiffel tower began to bend like rubber, and he realizes the lady was telling the truth. These were all things Bibot had dreamed the night before and this led him to think of ways not to waste the second fig. He tried to train his brain to dream that he was the richest man in the world. After many nights of dreaming his wonderful dream he decided it was time to eat the fig. He placed the fig on a plate and when he turned around Marcel ate the last fig. The next morning Bibot woke up under his bed looking At himself and it said “come on Marcel, time for a walk”! Find Fritz:Fritz is on the label of a bottle sitting on the counter in Bibot's kitchen. Teaching guide for The Sweetest Fig http://www.polarexpress.com/sites/default/files/icme/sweetestfig_tg.pdf

22. The Polar Express Caldecott Medal winner, 1986 5 million copies sold worldwide New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year New York Times Bestseller It is Christmas Eve. The boy is in his bed waiting. His friends have been trying to tell him that Santa Claus doesn't exist. He wants to believe in Santa, but wants to believe his friends as well. He is waiting to hear the bells to Santa's sleigh. But something unexpected happens instead. A train pulls up to his house. The conductor calls to the boy to board the train. To where? Why, to the North Pole! The boy boards the train. There he finds other children, all heading to the North Pole to see Santa Claus. Adventures are around every corner! Who can hear the bells from Santa’s sleigh, can you?