Chris Van Allsburg Essay

The author Chris Van Allsburg is a writer of fantasy and mystery. From Zathura to Bad Day at Riverbend  most of his stories are fantasy, and they sometimes have a mysterious twist.  His stories usually have a hidden message in them, like in Probuditi, a book where a boy plays a trick on his sister, only to find his sister played a trick on him, the message is “if you play tricks on people, prepare to have tricks played on you”.  Chris Van Allsburg is an author that uses his author’s craft to always make his stories great.

The story Two Bad Ants is my favorite story by Mr. Van Allsburg. It tells a tale written from a narrator’s perspective in the world of ants.  In the beginning the queen ant tastes sugar crystals and decides they are delectable.  She orders a scouting party that goes on a journey to a human’s house and brings back one sugar crystal each for the queen.  But, two ants decide to stay behind in a  paradise of crystals. When they wake up, they have wacky misadventures.  Two Bad Ants is a story of teamwork and how not working as a team can get you in trouble.

Chris Van Allsburg’s Bad Day at Riverbend tells a story written in the world of a coloring book.  The page where Riverbend (the pages where the story is set ) is has not been colored yet, so when a horse comes in with greasy slime(crayon) on it everybody is frightened.  Sheriff Ned Hardy goes looking for the rider and finds that he is also covered in greasy slime and in a bad state.  Both these are products of a four year old’s imagination and artistic mind.  This book gives the reader a glimmer of what their crayon drawings would feel like if they were alive.

The books Two Bad Ants and Bad Day at Riverbend are two similar but very different books.  They are both written from a narrator’s perspective in worlds that the human cannot manage to see with the naked eye.  Two Bad Ants could have very well happened in real life (if you don’t keep your sugar covered you could get ants) but Bad Day at Riverbend is purely fictional (coloring book drawings aren’t alive!).  These books are very good, Mr. Van Allsburg didn’t disappoint.  

I think Chris Van Allsburg was an interesting author to study because his author’s craft and extraordinary illustrations make him an author hard not to like. The plot of his books, like Jumanji and Zathura,  have twists and turns around every corner and are fun to read.  For picture books, his stories  have lots of depth and meaning to them.  Overall, I’d rate Chris Van Allsburg an 8 out of 10 author.