Zathura

by Chris Van Allsburg

Science Fiction

Two quarrelsome brothers find themselves in a game where they are forced to work together to survive.  The story begins with Walter wrestling his younger brother Danny. Their parents instruct them to play nicely as they leave to go to an event that night and are left alone.  Danny finds a game called "Jumanji" tucked under a nearby tree in their backyard and as he opens the game finds another game called "Zathura." As Danny rolls the dice the two brothers find themselves in a world galaxies away from Earth.  The brothers are forced to keep playing the game together if they are going to survive meteor showers, robots, and aliens. At the end of the book, Walter is swallowed by a black hole and then finds himself back wrestling with his brother. Walter realizes what happened and when Danny finds the game once again, Walter decides to throw the game away.  Walter embraces the fact that he loves his brother and asks him to go play ball in the backyard.  Allsburg does a great job by allowing readers to blend science and fiction in a way that maintains children's interest as science is mixed in with the fictional story.  I would use this book by integrating literature and science.  Although this book is science fiction, some of the terms are scientifically accurate and reading this story to the class would allow discussion about meteor showers and gravity.  Furthermore, this story offers a great lesson to readers of all ages: that life is precious and we should show others how much they mean to us.  This would be a great book to add to my classroom library.