Title: Jumanji
Author/Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg
Medium: black-and-white pencil/ sculptured drawings
Genre: Modern Fantasy
Theme: Life’s full of instructions. Be sure to read them first and don’t give up until you finish what you started.

Summary: Judy and Peter were very bored when their parents went to the opera and then they decided to go outside to the park. At the park, they found a Jumanji—a game board. They brought the game home to play. Needless to say, Peter and Judy didn’t know all adventures they would have to face before finishing the game up! J

Literary Elements:Setting: The entire story happened mostly at their house. Allsburg’s illustrations were gorgeous as it provided a very integral background. Each picture was like a black and white photo. Each picture was very detailed. For example, one of those pictures, Judy and Peter ran off into the park—you could see all grass, bushes and trees being very sharp. Almost like it was a real picture! Readers can almost imagine as if they were Judy or Peter.

Characterization: We know Judy and Peter as a sister and a brother. They were two siblings that decided to play the game, “Jumanji”. If it was not for exquisite drawings that the author did, then we would have not known what those characters looked like. We don’t know who they really are other than those facts that I just mentioned. Therefore, they are superficial characters. However, the readers (children) can relate to Judy and Peter because all children often imagine things to keep themselves entertained. There are other characters that only appeared once or twice (such as monkeys, lion, a man, snakes—etc) and they all were superficial as well. I wonder if this book had no words but pictures, would these characters become well developed or round?

Plot: The sequence in this story was progressive as it showed both in illustrations and text. Very straightforward with what was happening. Although, his illustrations were a bit more advanced than text because you could really see how illustrations were showing what was happening…..little details you could see in pictures that was not written. Their conflicts was to finish the game to get rid all of those strange creatures that they brought out of the game board. Children can relate to Judy and Peter’s conflicts---as if you do start something…and if you do not finish it then there will be problems. Hence self versus self. It’s a life along lesson to be learned for all of us.

Style: Allsburg’s text weren’t rich as I was hoping it to be. The entire story was being told in third person. I honestly did not like the text itself as much as I did with his illustrations. In my opinion, the text and the illustrations does not match. Its text was just flat while the illustrations were so much detailed, rich, beautiful and left more to tell. If its text included more of figurative language then maybe it would be different.

Reflection/Evaluation: To be honest, I was disappointed that the book was not similar to the movie. Didn’t Peter become a monkey? Didn’t they befriend a friend who came from the Jungle? Weren’t Peter and Judy only just friends and came to fall in love with each other?? Well, I only wish that I had read this book before I saw the movie My perspective might have changed if I did. Still, his illustrations just completely blew me away. It made me feel like I was there physically. His hidden message was clear—all children should not give up once whenever they started something. Life is full of instructions as they bring obstacles but as long as we keep trying…we’ll eventually finish.