Look at the back of the children in the picture with the adults. 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.Only the grandfather clock has any designed beauty. They live plainly: bedposts and kitchen chairs are unadorned and straight, the kitchen cabinets are plain white and unsculptured, the piano is a plain upright (made by Baldway), even the vases are as simple as possible. What can you learn about the family from the home in Jumanji? Someone, probably the father, smokes a pipe and, presumably, someone reads at least, there are books on the shelves but they look like the kind that no one reads. In most homes, you can tell a good deal about the people who live there, just by looking at the objects with which they surround themselves.It looks like a motel room, not a room in which someone lives and sleeps. Actually, nothing in the house is very warm, is it? Look at the bedroom where the lion chases Peter.Isn't it the dullest-looking one you've ever seen? It looks unfinished and certainly unplayed with. His back has a flatness to it which isn't right somehow, especially when you notice how carefully rounded the bowling pins are.

Look at the figure of the guide sitting on the dollhouse. Objects and figures have a sculpted quality with some intriguing flat planes where we least expect them.

In the last picture, for instance, we seem to be looking down on the boys, yet we are standing at the foot of a tree. 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. As in any successful picture book, the illustrations are at least as important as the text, so let's look carefully.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. 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. 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. The instructions, on a note attached to the box, are firm: once started, the game must be played to the finish. 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.

This Caldecott Award winning book has been intriguing people since it first came out.

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg