Chris Van Allsburg describes the setting of his 1950s childhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as idyllic and comfortable. "The houses weren't big. They were nice, small houses for families of four or maybe five. There were still places nearby where I could catch tadpoles, there were places to go sledding, there were fields where you could play baseball -- not someplace surrounded by a fence, just open fields. And I rode my bike to school."

Van Allsburg loved drawing as a child, but remembers "certain peer pressures encouraged little fingers to learn how to hold a football instead of a crayon." It was not until he entered the University of Michigan and took a freshman course in drawing that he rediscovered his love of art. He majored in fine arts and after graduation went on to earn an advanced degree in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Though Van Allsburg began his artistic life as a sculptor, even his early pieces show his emergence as a storyteller. Many of his sculptures possess a strong sense of narrative and action, and they show the humorous and slightly dark qualities seen in many of his picture books. He was sculpting full time but began drawing in the evenings at home because his studio was so far away. While he was still at RISD, Van Allsburg's wife Lisa, who produced a local television show, invited one of the show's guests home to dinner. The author and artist David Macaulay looked at Van Allsburg's drawings and confirmed Lisa Van Allsburg's feeling that they had tremendous picture-book potential. Macaulay encouraged Van Allsburg to send his drawings to editors, and as a result he developed a relationship with David Macaulay's editor, Walter Lorraine, at Houghton Mifflin Company.

Walter Lorraine remembers receiving a series of pictures of Van Allsburg's work. One piece in particular interested him. It was the image titled "Under the Rug" which later made its way into The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Lorraine was struck by the narrative potential in Van Allsburg's work. He felt Van Allsburg had an exceptional artistic talent and, more rarely, an understanding of how to tell a story through pictures. They met and discussed a book Van Allsburg wanted to do about topiary gardens. The idea evolved into The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, his first picture book, which Walter Lorraine published and which was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book.

That was 1979. Since then Walter Lorraine has published a new picture book by Chris Van Allsburg almost every year. Van Allsburg has won two Caldecott Medals and has achieved status as one of the greatest children's book illustrators of our time.