High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949 in East Grand Rapids, Michigan) is an American author and illustrator of children's books. He twice won the Caldecott Medal, for Jumanji (1982) and The Polar Express (1986), both of which he wrote and illustrated, and both of which were later adapted into successful motion pictures. He received the Caldecott Honor Medal in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.