On the last page of the Caldecott-winning book Jumanji, young Danny Budwing is seen running after his brother, Walter, with a game tucked under his arm. Now after twenty years, Chris Van Allsburg is ready to reveal what happens when Danny and Walter roll the dice. This time the name of the game is Zathura and the battling Budwing boys are in for the ride of their lives.
Zathura unleashes intergalactic challenges that require even the quarreling Budwing brothers to work as a team.

Zathura hit bestseller lists when it was first published in 2002 and it's sure to visit them again this fall, along with an exciting selection of six movie tie-in editions when Zathura blasts into movie theatres nationwide!

Twenty years after Jumanji (1981), Van Allsburg picks up where he left off, with Danny and Walter Budwing discovering an oblong box in the park. Walter dismisses the box as just some dumb old game, but his curious younger brother takes it home anyway. While Walter watches TV, Danny glances at the game's jungle adventure board, then turns his attention to a second board with an outer-space theme and a path of colored squares leading... to a purple planet called Zathura. Just then, with a click, a small green card popped out of the edge.... He picked it up and read, `Meteor showers, take evasive action.' The boys don't act too surprised when a giant meteor falls into their tastefully appointed living room, but they do get excited when they see only stars and dark sky outside their windows. Several dice-rolls later, they're scrambling to evade a homicidal robot and a scaly Zyborg pirate climbing backward through the meteor-hole in the ceiling (its face goes unseen). As the boys play, their sibling rivalry gives way to cooperation, and grouchy Walter comes to appreciate his little brother. Van Allsburg illustrates the surreal events in a grainy charcoal-black that seems to shimmer on a rough, cream-colored ground. His deathly quiet images double spreads this time have a frozen stillness that leaves all color and activity to the imagination; with each new threat, the book seems to hold its breath. Van Allsburg reuses some devices, and Zathura, like Jumanji, is a satisfying enigma. The puzzling conclusion, involving a black hole and time travel to an earlier illustration, will have devotees scouring the first book and its sequel for clues. All ages. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Categories:

• Science Fiction & Fantasy
  • Science Fiction