Chris van allsburg biography videos
What inspired U-M alum Chris Van Allsburg to write "The Polar Express"?
Video interview with Reading Rockets, Chris Van Allsburg talks about his big breakthrough, his books, and their transformation into movies....
Chris Van Allsburg
American children's writer and illustrator (born 1949)
Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American writer and illustrator of children's books.
He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.[1][2] For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S.
nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books.[3] He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012.
Life and career
Van Allsburg was born on June 18, 1949, to a Dutch family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the second child of Doris Christianen and Richard Van Allsburg.[4]
