The story of Jumanji is a classic that has been told to children of all ages for the past two decades. Based largely on pictures to tell its glories, Allsburg’s story delves into the mystical and magical world of imagination, using a children’s board game to set the backing for a tropical monsoon of mishaps.

Judy and Peter are two very bored children, who find a complex board game of many pieces and colors under a tree in the park. The cryptic title bears no more information, simply ‘JUMANJI’ carved onto the wooden front, and the notion that once the game is started, its maelstrom must be completed. Upon letting curiosity kill the cat, Judy and Peter also get

much more than they bargained for. Everything is real. Primates come to life to raid the fridge and ride motorcycles. A lion escapes the wilds to bear its home in the comfort of Judy and Peter’s living room. Nothing is as it seems.

And this is why Allsburg achieved the Caldecott Medal Award for his work. The story not only whets the metaphysical taste buds, it satisfies them. How many children growing up wished and wished for all of their imaginary wanderings to actually come to life? Allsburg not only does that, he supercedes it. Suddenly the child reading his work is thrust into a world where rolling the wrong side of the dice can mean mishap or success, at whatever price imaginable.

When this happens, the reader feels as if he or she has been let into the Allsburg’s world of secrets permanently. The reader will feel child-sized apprehension as to what exactly happens when the book ends. That mind will further explore this, and no doubt will think in detail as to what will happen to Judy and Peter’s friends. Being let into that area of the book will satisfy most children, bringing a wholesome ending to a 32 page magical journey of surprises.

The stories are endearing and adventurous, and in the end do indeed teach the children a deeper moral. The moral is all a matter of perspective, and can be anything from ‘Always finish what you start,’ to anything more that the imagination dares to comprehend. The tale is a mythic journey of fiction, a story that I sincerely wish on all of the children of our world, especially during a time where

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