Jumanji

Jumanji	Houghton Mifflin Company
Written and Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg	1981
Fiction	32 pages
Reading Level age 6-10	Caldecott Award

Summary

Peter and Judy are home, bored. They have already played with all their toys and have to clean them up before their parents get home with company. Peter and Judy run to the park to play. Near the roots of a tree, they find a game board. They take it home to play. Peter begins to roll the dice; Judy stops him and reads the rules. The most important rule was that once started, the game must be finished. Peter goes first, losing a turn when a lion attacks. He wants to play another game when a lion jumps from off the piano and chases him. Peter runs upstairs and the lion follows. Peter dashes out, leaving the lion in the room. Next monkeys destroy the kitchen, opening up all the cupboards and spilling the flour. Peter roll again, a monsoon rain starts to flood the living room. They keep playing as a lost trail guide appears, a stampede of rhinoceroses trample through the house, tsetse fly bites causing sleep, and a volcano eruption. They were so close to finishing. Judy rolls a twelve, landing on the golden city. She cried, ‘Jumanji!’ The smoke clears and everything was as it should be. All the animals were gone and none of the furniture was damaged. They look at each other and throw all the pieces into the box. They ran to the park and left the game under the tree again. Walked slowly home, they then cleaned up their toys and started a puzzle. Exhausted, they fell asleep shortly after starting it. They awoke to their parents coming home. Peter tried to explain all the things that had happened, but were interrupted by the parent’s laughter. As the children washed up for dinner, they glanced out the window and spied two boys running out of the park with a game box under one’s arm.

Response

I think this is an amazing book. I loved how everything was cleaned up and set back to right. I think that the board game would be the best activity to play with friends. The book is all black and white so it relies on shading and the reader’s imagination to add their own color. I didn’t remember this book had no color until I picked it up to reread. I had put in my own experience and influence to the pages that made them colorful to me.

Potential Problems

This has more text than most picture books, so wouldn’t be appropriate for younger ages. Also, it might be intense with all the dangerous things that happen to Peter and Judy.

Recommendations

I would recommend this to children with imagination and desire for a jungle adventure. It would be a fun book to act out or watch the movie afterwards.