Fantasy - Zathura

Title: Zathura 

Author: Chris Van Allsburg 

Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg 

Publisher: Houghton Muffin Company, 2002

ISBN: 0-618-25396-3

Summary: This is a story about two brothers who are always fighting. During one of their fights at the park, the little brother, Danny, found the game Jumangi. Danny took the game home and started to play it, while his brother watched TV. When he was finishing, he found another board shoved in the bottom of the box. This one was a game about space. Danny did not do anything to the board, but a green card popped out of the board on its own. The card said "meteor showers, take evasive action". As Danny was asking his brother what evasion meant, the sky grew dark and something began crashing into their roof...meteors. The boys had to play the entire game to get out of space and back to earth.

Evaluation: This was a great story that incorporated fantasy with the realism of sibling relationships. There were typical brothers in the book who were always arguing, and the older brother wanted nothing to do with his younger brother, something that a lot of children can most likely relate to. The fantasy aspect of the book came in when they started to play the boar game. The boys were then in outer space until they completed the game. They saw planets, meteors, aliens, and even a black hole while playing the game, all from out of their windows and front door. The idea of fantasy really made this book fun to read. The illustrations were in all black and white, but were very detailed and very large. However, with the theme of space, I do think that adding some color to the illustrations here and there could have made the book more visually appealing, especially for children.

Rating: I would give this book 4/5 stars.