"The Mysteries of Harris Burdick"

Title: "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick"
Author and Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984
Genre: Picture Book
Grade: 3-6

This book begins with an introduction letting the readers know how this particular book came into being. The rest of the book shows 14 pictures that Van Allsburg has used a charcoal pencil to make. Each two-page spread has a drawing on the right and on the left page there is a title for the picture and then underneath the title it gives a caption for the drawing. However the thing that sets this book apart from any other is the fact that the book doesn't tell a story. It's actually 14 different stories in one single picture book.

I was amazed by this book! I had never seen anything like it! I was amazed at the background that Van Allsburg gives about this book. Thirty years ago a man named Harris Burdick came into Peter Wenders' office and brought with him one drawing from each story. Wenders loved the drawings so he told Burdick to bring the stories that went along with each drawing, as soon as possible. He left his drawings with Wenders but he never returned with the other stories and no one ever heard from Harris Burdick again. Van Allsburg then took the pictures and re-drew them and made them his own work. It was really weird reading through a book that isn't telling one story, but instead 14 different stories. On top of that though, it was hard to imagine what kind of story would have been associated with the picture and its caption.

I would put this book to great use in my classroom. I believe it would be ideal for fourth graders to use when they are preparing for their writing test. I could show my students a drawing out of the book and read them the caption and then have them to write me a story based on the caption Van Allsburg provided. I would use this same technique up through high school as well. I think it would be a great story to integrate into the mystery genre of literature, as well as the creative writing section.