Zathura

Infobox Book
name = Zathura
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of "Zathura"
author = Chris Van Allsburg
illustrator = Chris Van Allsburg
cover_artist = Chris Van Allsburg
country = United States
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Children's novel
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
release_date = October 28, 2002
english_release_date =
media_type =
pages = 32
isbn = ISBN 061-825-3963
ISBN 978-061-825-3968
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Zathura" is an illustrated novel by the American author Chris Van Allsburg as well as a film based on the book. In this book, two boys, Walter and Danny Budwing, home alone in a large American Craftsman house, discover a space-themed board game where everything inside it becomes real. The boys are eventually drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is magically hurled through space. The plot is similar to "Jumanji", another illustrated book by Van Allsburg, and references are made, both visual and textual, to "Jumanji".

Walter and Danny, two quarrelsome brothers, find the Jumanji game in the nearby park. Danny looks deeper into the box, however, and discovers another game inside of it, Zathura. He starts playing, and Walter finds himself having to help his sibling rival to get home. To finish the game, they must endure a malfunctioning gyroscope, a meteor shower, low gravity, a defective robot, and invading Zorgon aliens. The game is eventually "finished" when Walter is sent back in time prior to Zathura's playing by a black hole.

References