THE MYSTERIES OF HARRIS BURDICK

THE MYSTERIES OF HARRIS BURDICK

Written by Chris Van

Allsburg

What else did he

write??

ALSO WRITTEN BY ALLSBURG…

Jumanji

Zathura

Polar Express

HARRIS BURDICKWhen Chris Van Allsburg was invited to the home of Peter

Wenders, he discovered fourteen drawings that were, like pieces of

a picture puzzle, clues to larger pictures. But the puzzles, the

mysteries, presented by these drawings, are not what we are used

to. They are not solved for us, as the final pages of a book or a film's

last reel. The solutions to these mysteries lie in a place at once

closer to hand, yet far more remote. They lie in our imagination. For

those who have thought of themselves as unimaginative, this book

will prove the opposite. Even the most reluctant imagination, when

confronted by these drawings, will not be able to resist solving the

mysteries of Harris Burdick.

Introduction: I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named

Peter Wenders. Though Mr. Wenders is retired now, he once worked for a children’s book

publisher, choosing the stories and pictures that would be turned into books. Thirty years ago a

man called at Peter Wenders’s office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick

explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He’d

brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Mr. Wenders liked his work. Peter

Wenders was fascinated by the drawings. He told Burdick he would like to read the stories that

went with them as soon as possible. The artist agreed to bring the stories the next morning. He

left the fourteen drawings with Wenders. But he did not return the next day. Or the day after

that. Harris Burdick was never heard from again. Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who

Burdick was and what had happened to him, but he discovered nothing. To this day Harris

Burdick remains a complete mystery. His disappearance is not the only mystery left behind. What

were the stories that went with these drawings? There are some clues. Burdick had written a

title and caption for each picture. When I told Peter Wenders how difficult it was to look at the

drawings and their captions without imagining a story, he smiled and left the room. He returned

with a dust-covered cardboard box. Inside were dozens of stories, all inspired by the Burdick

drawings. They’d been written years ago by Wenders’s children and their friends. I spent the rest

of my visit reading these stories. They were remarkable, some bizarre, some funny, some

downright scary. In the hope that other children will be inspired by them, the Burdick drawings

are reproduced here for the first time.

GALLERY WALK

Around the room are images from The Mysteries of

Harris Burdick

In order to select the image that you would like to

write on you first need to take a look at all of them!

Take your notebook with you as you walk around and

jot down which images interest you the most. When you

have looked at all of the options and selected the two

that interest you the most return to your seat.

YOUR OWN MYSTERY

Now that you have selected an image

to work from, brainstorm ideas for how

you might create a short story around

the mysterious image you selected.

The work you do today will serve as

your pre-writing for a short story based

on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

THE THIRD-FLOOR

BEDROOM"IT ALL BEGAN

WHEN SOMEONE LEFT

THE WINDOW OPEN."

AN EXAMPLE…BY ME!David and Sarah were each tucked in by their mother and father thoroughly. They smiled their

bedtime smiles, melted into exhausted grins by the day’s vigorous play. Then Mother and

Father left their beloved children with a “Good night” and a Good Night Kiss, and descended

the stairs.

David’s room was across the hall from Sarah’s, yet David could still hear the wind whistling

through the fluttering curtains like a stork flapping its wings. The breeze was a slow, constant

flow of coolness, which was a wonderful climax to the active day the Jacobson children had. But

before the children could bask any further in the cool breeze, a sound, much like a low grinding

or humming, began to emit from the backyard. This sound floated in through Sarah’s window,

along with masses of flailing, fluttering, flapping flocks of pure white doves. They all seemed to

collide with the wall. At first, Sarah thought they would all fall to the ground, but gradually the

wall seemed to absorb the birds, except for one solitary wing.

Of course, the children awoke to discover they both had the exact same dream...

Mysteries of Harris Burdick Video• An interpretation of the images

JOURNAL…