OMG, OMG, OMG!!!! I tend to pass on reviewing a lot of children's literature because I don't want to hurt feelings of people who may, if I ever publish another work of fiction, be in a position to review my work. But sometimes I read something that is so great that I have to tell the world.

I have always adored The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg - a collection of incredible artwork with captions only. They are so inspiring. Now, some brilliant person decided to ask authors to write stories to go with the pictures and captions. The authors are the best - Stephen King, Tobin Anderson, Walter Dean Meyers and Lois Lowry, to name a few and they do an amazing job. I am not a huge fan of the short story genre - too intense for me - so I read these over a few days so as to not freak myself out (like watching a Twilight Zone marathon). Some were not as good as others, but all were still fabulous. What people chose to do with these illustrations was so creative. One thing that I couldn't help but be surprised about was that ALL of them used the illustration as either the climax or the final scene of the story - I would have tried to start stories with many of them - shows what I don't know!!!!

BE SURE to read the foreword by Lemony Snickett - it's hysterical!!!!!