Chris Van Allsburg’s Followers (1,102)

Chris Van Allsburg

Born

in Grand Rapids, Michigan, The United States

June 18, 1949

Website

Genre

Children's Books

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Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.

Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.

When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounde Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.

Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.

When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.

When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.

There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.

The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.

Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.

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Combine Editions
Chris Van Allsburg’s books

Average rating: 4.24 · 363,649 ratings · 13,110 reviews · 58 distinct works ‧ Similar authors

	The Polar Express 4.32 avg rating — 246,234 ratings — published 1985 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales 4.04 avg rating — 33,573 ratings — published 2011 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jumanji 4.05 avg rating — 30,046 ratings — published 1981 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mysteries of Harris Burdick 4.51 avg rating — 6,984 ratings — published 1984 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Widow's Broom 4.28 avg rating — 5,214 ratings — published 1992	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Garden of Abdul Gasazi 4.04 avg rating — 4,401 ratings — published 1979 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Queen of the Falls 3.90 avg rating — 4,451 ratings — published 2011 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sweetest Fig 4.18 avg rating — 3,417 ratings — published 1993 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Stranger 4.08 avg rating — 3,464 ratings — published 1986 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Two Bad Ants 4.07 avg rating — 3,350 ratings — published 1988 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Chris Van Allsburg…

Series by Chris Van Allsburg

Jumanji (2 books)
by

Chris Van Allsburg

4.02 avg rating — 33,360 ratings

Quotes by Chris Van Allsburg (?)

“At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.”
― Chris Van Allsburg, The Polar Express

tags: believe, bell, christmas, old, young

162 likes

“The inclination to believe in the fantastic may strike some as a failure in logic, or gullibility, but it’s really a gift. A world that might have Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster is clearly superior to one that definitely does not.”
― Chris Van Allsburg

75 likes

“Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see.”
― Chris Van Allsburg, The Polar Express

tags: childrens-books, christmas

54 likes

See all Chris Van Allsburg's quotes »

Polls

December 2015 Short Story Poll

1843, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, 31 pages

23 votes, 18.4%

1905, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, 32 pages

18 votes, 14.4%

1985, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, 32 pages

18 votes, 14.4%

1979 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter, 126 pages

14 votes, 11.2%

1835, The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, 48 pages

12 votes, 9.6%

1936, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway, 72 pages

12 votes, 9.6%

1865, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov, 88 pages

9 votes, 7.2%

1834, The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin, 52 pages

8 votes, 6.4%

1983, Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal, 98 pages

5 votes, 4.0%

1897, Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham, 128 pages

5 votes, 4.0%

1955, Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, 128 pages

1 vote, 0.8%

125 total votes

1 comment

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