"Jumanji" by Chris Van Allsburg

This is Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg, a Scholastic paperback from 1988. See how the cover is flaking away in white patches, like frost on a windowpane, or like it’s spent a century in an attic? 

The story: Judy and Peter, home alone on a gloomy afternoon, find a board game abandoned in the park. It isn’t the kind you can't walk away from, because whatever happens on the board happens in their living room. Monkeys in the kitchen, just like the cover shows. And that’s only the beginning. The rules are simple: you have to finish the game.

Van Allsburg’s moody black-and-white drawings look like photographs from a dream, so when something impossible wanders into an ordinary room, it’s thrilling and a little unsettling. It won the Caldecott Medal, that gold seal right there on the cover.

It’s a perfect read-aloud for kids five to nine, delightfully spooky and never too scary.

Just don’t be surprised if you hear drums tonight.

This classic's very low price is due to its condition.