I too was a big fan of Chris Van Allsburg when I was younger. His illustrations were the best of all (probably why Polar Express is being computer animated).
All of his books were somewhat "Twilight Zone"-like wich is the reason why I liked them so much. Hopefully Polar Express will fare better than Jumanji, when it comes out.
I don't know if anyone has ever stumbled upon a mysterious book of his entitled "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick." It contained a bunch of awesome illustrations with one sentence captions underneath each one. It was really cool (kinda eerie too). Definitely something to check out.
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P.S. I think children's books make really awsome movies. (i.e. Holes). I would love to see some of my favorite books that I read when I was younger turned into quality movies. My dream would be to see Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee turned into a major motion picture.
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