The Mysteries of Harris Burdick: From the Caldecott medal-winning creator of Jumanji―mysterious images and captions invite kids to invent their own stories

I've been a long-time fan of Chris Van Allsburg's works, and have been sharing his books with my first grader. This is one of our favorites, as each browsing gives us a chance to come up with our own storyline and enables our imaginations to take flight. The book contains fourteen pictures, with captions attached to each. Now these are not ordinary pictures, but feature something out of the ordinary, with equally mysterious captions that make one wonder at the various possibilities for a story! For example, one of my favorite pictures features a young girl sound asleep with a vine creeping out of a book with the title "Mr. Linden's Library" and the caption "He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late." I confess that my imagination took a macabre turn here! My first grader on the other hand imagined something along the lines of Jack (or Jill in this case) and the Beanstalk with the girl waking up and finding a tree growing in her room and going off on an adventure not unlike Jack/Jill. I've also used this book with my students, and they absolutely love the chance to create a story and come up with their own interpretations. Another charm of this book is that the pictures can be used to imagine stories of various genres such as science fiction, horror, mystery, adventure, fantasy, etc. This is a treasure trove of ideas, a great educational resource, and a wonderful way to keep one's brain meaningfully engaged!

I have always admired Chris Van Allsburg's picture books. From the festive "Polar Express" to the evocative "Jumanji," they all inspire the reader with simple language and rich lush illustration. "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" is no exception. Here are 14 unrelated pictures with 14 unrelated titles and attention grabbing sentences. One shows a pirate ship, another a house rocketing off into space, and still another a woman falling asleep reading a book that has suddenly become alive. A recent edition has come out with short stories attached by the author as well as other writers like Louis Sachar and Stephen King, but I think the portfolio edition should satisfy all your inspirational story crafting needs. This book is great grist for the mind mill. It will have you thinking and guessing what next long after the final page is turned. So whether you're a creative writer or a teacher at any level of writing or even art (I know all my teachers and friends just couldn't get enough of this) you'll want to check this book out. Also, be sure to buy the portfolio edition which includes an extra 15th drawing tying it to one of the others in the collection. Again, great stories come from the molten core of the imagination, and great pictures to supplement them and get the mind going are always welcome. Happy writing and good luck!

I love this book! I teach in an elementary school where at least once a week we do a quick write. At this time students are given a short prompt, usually a sentence, and are expected to write off of it for a short length of time. As soon as this activity was brought into our curriculum, this book came to mind. Each page shows a beautiful black and white picture depicting some sort of mysterious occurrence. Instead of having each linked to each other, every picture tells its own story and has with it only one sentence, which adds to the mystery of the images. Not only does this make it a great tool for English Language Learners and visual learners, but the content of the artwork has been very engaging for my students and their creative writing. This is one of those unique books that can be truly interactive. Beyond just writing prompts, it’s great for discussion and story telling. I've even seen it used up in high school leveled English classes to encourage creativity from students.

I use this in my 4 th grade classroom for Friday creative writing. Each page is an unusual illustration with a title and 1-2 sentences. My students look at the picture, copy the title and finish the story. The illustrations are unusual and even my reluctant writers enjoy this book. Their favorite is the house that lifts off like a spaceship.The author is Chris Van Alsburg.

I first heard about this book when I was listening to the audio book version of Stephen Kings Nightmares & Dreamscapes. He spoke about the inspiration of one of his short stories, I will paraphrase it here. He had received a copy of the book from a friend who thought that it would be something that he might enjoy. He opened it and was taken by the images along with the title's and short descriptions of novels that the images came from. He as inspired to challenge his family to each pick an image and to write a short story based upon the image. His short story was based upon the last image in the book, "The House On Maple Street". In addition to Nightmares & Dreamscapes, this story is part of a collection with 13 others written by prominate authors, you can find this collection here The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales / With an Introduction by Lemony Snicket This book is a collection of Images, with the back story being that an author had showed up to a publishing house with a portfolio of Images each based upon stories that he had written. After a promising first meeting the author (Harris Burdick) said to come back the next day with his stories, and the rest of images. He never returned. The collection are the only images and the titles of the books that may or may not have ever existed. This book is a great source of inspiration when the creative juices are not quite flowing, and is a perfect source of inspiration.

My sixth grade teacher used this book for a creative writing assignment. We were supposed to pick one of the pages and write a story based on Chris Van Allsburg's wonderful illustrations. Chris Van Allsburg, known to me as the author/illustrator of Jumanji and The Polar Express, outdoes himself in this book. It is a book to get the mind thinking, especially for children. Each illustration has a caption that is supposed to get the mind thinking. A child cannot read this book without formulating a story, perhaps unconsciously, in his mind. Chris Van Allsburg is a wonderful artist. Each illustration, done in only simple black and white, is so breathtaking that I could stare at them time and again and be amazed at the detail, the realness. The sentence-long captions that go along with each picture even today cause me to dream up a story. It is a terrific book to get a child interested in writing. :)

I absolutely love this portfolio and recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in Harris Burdick and his story/pictures. I have nothing bad to say about the actual item, but I am severely disappointed by the shipping quality...the outside of the packaging was fine, but upon being opened, I saw that the edges of the portfolio were crumpled all the way around. The pictures inside were fine but I really, really was disappointed by the outside...I was hoping that everything would be in pristine condition since I ordered it new and not used. I love the portfolio though and am giving it to my English teacher, who does an essay assignment based on the drawings...

I love the author who wrote this book

What amazing illustrations... I love that the children are supposed to imagine and develop the story

とてもたくさんの不思議なものがたりが広がっている。それがどんなものがたりなのかは、決まっていない。100人の読者がいれば、100通りのものがたりがあるだろう。そんな絵本。この絵本に触発されてほんものの作家たちがトリビュートの小説集をつくったと聴く。でもそれは作家だけの特権ではない。この絵本を開く人ならだれでも、じぶんだけのものがたりを紡げばいいのだ。

I originally bought The Mysteries of Harris Burdick to use during a KS2 teaching interview, and it exceeded my expectations. Since then, it has become a regular feature in my KS2 classroom, and I even know colleagues who have successfully used it with KS1 children. Although it’s primarily a picture book, each illustration is paired with a simple title and caption that sparks curiosity. The images are mysterious and invite children—and adults—to imagine the stories behind them. While a few illustrations might feel slightly eerie to some younger pupils, the older children I’ve worked with find them intriguing and love using them as inspiration for imaginative writing. Overall, it’s a great stimulus for storytelling and a fantastic resource for the classroom.

Fabulous pictures. Evokes imagination, storytelling, invites child’s perspectives and interactive dialogue. This book is never the same story twice.

This is an intriguing picture book for an older child or adult. I have the portfolio edition and every picture would be worth framing but where it really comes into its own is as a teaching resource. I'm a supply teacher and this book has already become an essential part of my supply bag. The pictures, titles and captions inspire wonderful speaking and listening,imaginative thought and sensitive art work. My pupils love working with this book and so do I. If I had one class full time I think we could base and entire half-terms' literacy, art, DT and music on this book and never get bored. Children today often find it difficult to relax and use their imaginations (too much tv, too many computer games, too worried about wrong answers)but this book inspires them.