Tim Pierce · CC BY-SA 3.0

A children's book author and illustrator whose eerie, meticulous drawings gave weight to what could have been slight stories, Van Allsburg won Caldecott Medals for both Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), each later adapted into a major film. He was also a 1986 U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honor for children's book creators.