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The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
Who is Harris Burdick?
For more than twenty-five years, readers have been puzzling over the illustrations by this enigmatic artist. Thousands of children have been inspired to weave their own stories to go with his intriguingly titled pictures. And now, some of our most imaginative storytellers attempt to solve the perplexing mysteries of Harris Burdick.
Enter The Chronicles of Harris Burdick to read this incredible compendium of stories: magical, funny, creepy, poignant, inscrutable, these are tales you won't soon forget.
(front flap)
For more than twenty-five years, readers have been puzzling over the illustrations by this enigmatic artist. Thousands of children have been inspired to weave their own stories to go with his intriguingly titled pictures. And now, some of our most imaginative storytellers attempt to solve the perplexing mysteries of Harris Burdick.
Enter The Chronicles of Harris Burdick to read this incredible compendium of stories: magical, funny, creepy, poignant, inscrutable, these are tales you won't soon forget.
(front flap)
221 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
178 people are currently reading
11762 people want to read
About the author
Chris Van Allsburg
56 books1,127 followersChris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.
Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.
When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.
When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.
There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.
The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.
Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.
Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.
When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.
When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.
There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.
The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.
Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.
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June 18, 2011
Chris Van Allsburg has always been the Rod Serling of the children’s literary world. Of that there can be no question. With no other author, not Gorey, not Snicket, not even R.L. Stine himself, will kids encounter that eerie feeling that can only be best associated with classic Twilight Zone episodes. All his picture books (even nonfiction ones like Queen of the Falls) suggest to the reader that ours is a world not far removed from the ones featured in his books. Maybe coloring books really do have lives of their own before children get to them. Perhaps strangers with amnesia really do have a special relationship with the seasons. And that board game you find one day? Fuggetaboutit. Of all his books, mind, the one that really touched this eerie quality best was The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. I can think of no other picture book that has covered such ground. Back in 1984, Burdick dared to simply imply stories rather than tell them. Its mysterious pictures, each with a single line beneath, hinted at whole worlds. Now fourteen writers for children have been tapped to interpret these stories themselves, to varying degrees of success. Whether you love all the stories, some of the stories, or just a few of the stories, this is one of the better short story collections for kids out there. Its success, however, hinges entirely on its authors’ ability to understand Van Allsburg and his tone.
Fourteen authors. Thirteen stories. One introduction by Lemony Snicket. Each author takes an image from Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harries Burdick and writes a short story about that image. The results are as varied as can be. Jon Scieszka seemingly channels Roald Dahl with his satisfyingly short “Under the Rug”. Stephen King, in contrast, presents the longest story with “The House on Maple Street”, though it is no less satisfying. Kids reading this book will find droll writing from Linda Sue Park, a Truman Show-esque tale of caution from M.T. Anderson, and a true epic fantasy from Cory Doctorow. By the end some authors have successfully plugged into the Van Allsburg mindset while others have struggled, but while the stories might be touch and go, they are never, ever dull.
Short story collections for kids can be such a mixed bag, particularly when different authors write them. You’d actually find a lot more consistency in a collection by a single author (like Strange Happenings by Avi, say) than one with fourteen different people. In the case of this particular book, I found myself judging the stories on two entirely different levels. First, there were the tales themselves. Were they adequately interesting? Well-written? Something a kid would be compelled to read? Second, how closely did the authors actually look at the images they were supposed to interpret? In short story writing there can be no “wrong” storytelling, yet I often felt far more compelled to give credit to the writers that knew how to use a picture as inspiration rather than as a mere starting point.
Let us consider the quality of the tales, first and foremost. Some writers wrote tales that were whole and complete stories. Stephen King’s consideration of a space-bound house, say, or Jules Feiffer’s tale of an elderly children’s author. Other authors sort of took their tales and used them to tell the beginning of a story. Cory Doctorow’s fascinating look at alternate realities did that, as did Sherman Alexie’s tale (which, along with M.T. Anderson’s, ambles the closest to Van Allsburg’s own penchant for the dark and mysterious). But those authors that wrote what felt like the first chapter in a book actually became the most interesting of the lot. They hearken back to the original Harris Burdick and its role in classrooms around the country. For years creative writing teachers have used the picture book and its illustrations to inspire kids to continue the tales. So stories like Doctorow’s or Alexie’s sort of end up doing the same thing. A kid could read their tales and be inspired to continue along the same lines.
That said, some of the stories just didn’t do it for me storywise. Tabitha King who, to the best of my knowledge, has never written for children before, is a strange inclusion in this collection. Her story “Archie Smith, Boy Wonder” promises much with its title and image. Sadly, it doesn’t deliver (making me suspect that hers is the first story in the collection for a reason). And interestingly, looking back at the book I found myself forgetting Van Allsburg’s own story (a fact I find relatively ironic). It’s perfectly nice, but I couldn’t conjure you up the details if you asked.
Then there was how well and author interpreted their picture. There was a great deal of variation in this. Some authors were shockingly faithful. Gregory Maguire’s tale “Missing in Venice” really does manage to come up with a reason why an ocean liner might be traversing the too small canals of that great city. “The Third-Floor Bedroom” by Kate DiCamillo starts out by sounding like it might go in a different direction, then justifies everything by its story’s end. Other authors were vaguely faithful. Lois Lowry’s “The Seven Chairs” uses the line that accompanies its image (“The fifth one ended up in France”) though not with the scene that we see of a nun floating high above two priests. That’s okay. It’s cheating a little, but it isn’t too bad. Then there are the authors who clearly just glanced at the image and quote and didn’t feel the need to really pair their stories to the images. I’m torn on the Walter Dean Myers story “Mr. Linden’s Library” since the storyline feels very Van Allsburg, even while it has little to do with the accompanying picture of a woman asleep in front of a vine-spewing book. Louis Sachar, however, may have paid the least amount of attention to his image. In his picture a captain signals a boat with a boy by his side. Look closely at the picture, however, and you’ll see that the captain has a firm grip on the boy’s upper arm, so as to keep him from escaping. Sachar latched on to the boy and captain idea in “Captain Tory” but the drama of the scene has completely escaped him. Ah well.
I told someone I know about this book recently and they responded with sadness. “Oh, what a pity. The whole point of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick was that kids could make the stories out to be whatever they wanted.” True, I suppose, but I don’t see this book as being anything but a natural extension of the original. There’s nothing to say that teachers can’t continue to use the first book for assignments, then show the kids this book as a follow-up. And who knows? Maybe the kids will read these stories on their own, think to themselves “I can do better than that!”, and be inspired to write their own versions as well. Hey, stranger things have happened. Above and beyond all of that, however, this is just a really good collection of stories for kids. Eerie and wonderful. Strange and unpredictable. You may not love every story in here, but the ones you do care for will burn strong and bright in your memory, long after the weaker ones have faded. If I were to recommend to you one short story collection to kids published in the last ten years, this would be the one I’d hand over.
For ages 9-12.
Fourteen authors. Thirteen stories. One introduction by Lemony Snicket. Each author takes an image from Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harries Burdick and writes a short story about that image. The results are as varied as can be. Jon Scieszka seemingly channels Roald Dahl with his satisfyingly short “Under the Rug”. Stephen King, in contrast, presents the longest story with “The House on Maple Street”, though it is no less satisfying. Kids reading this book will find droll writing from Linda Sue Park, a Truman Show-esque tale of caution from M.T. Anderson, and a true epic fantasy from Cory Doctorow. By the end some authors have successfully plugged into the Van Allsburg mindset while others have struggled, but while the stories might be touch and go, they are never, ever dull.
Short story collections for kids can be such a mixed bag, particularly when different authors write them. You’d actually find a lot more consistency in a collection by a single author (like Strange Happenings by Avi, say) than one with fourteen different people. In the case of this particular book, I found myself judging the stories on two entirely different levels. First, there were the tales themselves. Were they adequately interesting? Well-written? Something a kid would be compelled to read? Second, how closely did the authors actually look at the images they were supposed to interpret? In short story writing there can be no “wrong” storytelling, yet I often felt far more compelled to give credit to the writers that knew how to use a picture as inspiration rather than as a mere starting point.
Let us consider the quality of the tales, first and foremost. Some writers wrote tales that were whole and complete stories. Stephen King’s consideration of a space-bound house, say, or Jules Feiffer’s tale of an elderly children’s author. Other authors sort of took their tales and used them to tell the beginning of a story. Cory Doctorow’s fascinating look at alternate realities did that, as did Sherman Alexie’s tale (which, along with M.T. Anderson’s, ambles the closest to Van Allsburg’s own penchant for the dark and mysterious). But those authors that wrote what felt like the first chapter in a book actually became the most interesting of the lot. They hearken back to the original Harris Burdick and its role in classrooms around the country. For years creative writing teachers have used the picture book and its illustrations to inspire kids to continue the tales. So stories like Doctorow’s or Alexie’s sort of end up doing the same thing. A kid could read their tales and be inspired to continue along the same lines.
That said, some of the stories just didn’t do it for me storywise. Tabitha King who, to the best of my knowledge, has never written for children before, is a strange inclusion in this collection. Her story “Archie Smith, Boy Wonder” promises much with its title and image. Sadly, it doesn’t deliver (making me suspect that hers is the first story in the collection for a reason). And interestingly, looking back at the book I found myself forgetting Van Allsburg’s own story (a fact I find relatively ironic). It’s perfectly nice, but I couldn’t conjure you up the details if you asked.
Then there was how well and author interpreted their picture. There was a great deal of variation in this. Some authors were shockingly faithful. Gregory Maguire’s tale “Missing in Venice” really does manage to come up with a reason why an ocean liner might be traversing the too small canals of that great city. “The Third-Floor Bedroom” by Kate DiCamillo starts out by sounding like it might go in a different direction, then justifies everything by its story’s end. Other authors were vaguely faithful. Lois Lowry’s “The Seven Chairs” uses the line that accompanies its image (“The fifth one ended up in France”) though not with the scene that we see of a nun floating high above two priests. That’s okay. It’s cheating a little, but it isn’t too bad. Then there are the authors who clearly just glanced at the image and quote and didn’t feel the need to really pair their stories to the images. I’m torn on the Walter Dean Myers story “Mr. Linden’s Library” since the storyline feels very Van Allsburg, even while it has little to do with the accompanying picture of a woman asleep in front of a vine-spewing book. Louis Sachar, however, may have paid the least amount of attention to his image. In his picture a captain signals a boat with a boy by his side. Look closely at the picture, however, and you’ll see that the captain has a firm grip on the boy’s upper arm, so as to keep him from escaping. Sachar latched on to the boy and captain idea in “Captain Tory” but the drama of the scene has completely escaped him. Ah well.
I told someone I know about this book recently and they responded with sadness. “Oh, what a pity. The whole point of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick was that kids could make the stories out to be whatever they wanted.” True, I suppose, but I don’t see this book as being anything but a natural extension of the original. There’s nothing to say that teachers can’t continue to use the first book for assignments, then show the kids this book as a follow-up. And who knows? Maybe the kids will read these stories on their own, think to themselves “I can do better than that!”, and be inspired to write their own versions as well. Hey, stranger things have happened. Above and beyond all of that, however, this is just a really good collection of stories for kids. Eerie and wonderful. Strange and unpredictable. You may not love every story in here, but the ones you do care for will burn strong and bright in your memory, long after the weaker ones have faded. If I were to recommend to you one short story collection to kids published in the last ten years, this would be the one I’d hand over.
For ages 9-12.
November 24, 2020
This is a collection of more or less creepy and fantastical short stories by a dozen+ authors, based on single illustrations by Chris van Allsburg (who also authored one of the stories).
I like the idea, I like the illustrations. None of the stories were bad. Most of them weren't great, either, and I've already forgotten several a day later. Perfectly palatable as an anthology goes.
My favorites:
Cory Doctorow's "Another Place, Another Time" is a convenient introduction to quantum mechanics and the idea of alternate timelines. Nerd your children early or they may grow up boring!
Kate DiCamillo's epistolary "The Third-Floor Bedroom" is more about family and loss than fantasy, but I liked the grumpy narrative voice of the girl lot.
"Captain Tory" is a very gentle ghost story by the ever-kind Louis Sachar.
I like the idea, I like the illustrations. None of the stories were bad. Most of them weren't great, either, and I've already forgotten several a day later. Perfectly palatable as an anthology goes.
My favorites:
Cory Doctorow's "Another Place, Another Time" is a convenient introduction to quantum mechanics and the idea of alternate timelines. Nerd your children early or they may grow up boring!
Kate DiCamillo's epistolary "The Third-Floor Bedroom" is more about family and loss than fantasy, but I liked the grumpy narrative voice of the girl lot.
"Captain Tory" is a very gentle ghost story by the ever-kind Louis Sachar.
December 13, 2011
Actual rating: 3.5 stars.
The best stories in this collection have a sense of possibility, of capturing a moment at the beginning or in the middle of a much larger tale, inviting the reader to continue off the page with their own imagination. Those are also the stories that, for me, capture the spirit of the original Harris Burdick book (which I inexplicably found in my house – how did it get there?) -- the endless promise, and the strange and wonderful and dreadful directions in which each illustration can be taken.
Some of these stories end right before you expect them to, in a dramatically ambiguous way. Jon Scieszka’s funny but creepy “Under the Rug”, about a man who doesn’t like his nagging Grandma much, ends like this; you think you know what’s to come, but it ends right before the big moment, on such a note that you can imagine it going another way. Jules Feiffer’s melancholy and weird “Uninvited Guests”, about a children’s book illustrator who has no real people in his life anymore, does the same thing.
Others are even more enigmatic: they don’t really end at all. Where they end (or when, I should say) feels right, but they don’t provide closure in terms of plot. They spiral outward in multiple directions at once, like the handcar with the sail in Cory Doctorow’s fantastic fantasy of multiple universes, “Another Place, Another Time” or they stop abruptly at the most unsettling moment possible, as in Sherman Alexie’s “A Strange Day in July”, about mean-spirited twins who invent a third sibling and find that she is just as mean-spirited as they are. Walter Dean Myers’ “Mr. Linden’s Library” also does this; it tells the story of a girl who is sucked into a never-ending book about a boy swimming in the midst of the sea without ever reaching shore, and the ending is evocative and sad but suggestive of more to come. (Like the story she’s in, it will never truly end.) “The Third-Floor Bedroom” by Kate DiCamillo also has a suggestive ending, but a less sad and more hopeful one; it reminded me a lot of “The Yellow Wallpaper” at first, but took it in a less creepy direction so it ended up being about a woman’s growing understanding of herself, compassion for her caretaker, and hope for the future, instead of a descent into madness. (Oh well.)
My favorite story is MT Anderson’s “Just Desert”, which calls to mind another of his disturbing short stories I’ve read, “Watch and Wake” in Gothic: Ten Original Dark Tales. Both left me feeling off-kilter, with goose bumps, because they present a terrible, disorienting sensation that something we’ve always trusted unconditionally (like the existence of the world; the existence of the self) is a vulnerable, fragile construct. This story is just awesome, and uses the illustration as a jumping off point for truly strange developments.
Of course, those stories that are complete in themselves still use the illustrations and captions to good effect (for the most part) and many are quite memorable, such as Stephen King’s “The House on Maple Street” and Linda Sue Park’s “The Harp”. They are just not my favorites -- maybe because they have heartwarming endings and not creepy ones, which is just my poor taste showing.
Like most collections, there were a few stories that didn’t work for me (okay, five). They weren’t poorly written and they will probably appeal to other readers. I thought Tabitha King’s “Archie Smith, Boy Wonder” was oddly pointless, like it missed the point both of the illustration and of how to write a story for children. Gregory Maguire’s “Missing in Venice” worked in the image of a big ship in a narrow canal in a way I didn’t expect (I think because of how literal it was) but I was impatient with the narrator and the plot. Lois Lowry’s “The Seven Chairs” had too sentimental of an ending and not much plot. I like the way Chris Van Allsburg’s “Oscar and Alphonse” ended (another example of a story that felt like a beginning of a larger tale) but otherwise it didn’t have enough detail to really draw me in; it didn’t feel fleshed out enough for me to believe the caterpillars knew the answer to the “mystery of life” (maybe I missed the point on this one, though, because obviously I am taking that one too literally). And while “Captain Tory” by Louis Sachar was a nice story about a beloved ghost discovering a new life, I don’t think it did justice to the illustration. It’s a very basic story for such a complicated picture.
Oh, and Lemony Snicket’s paranoid introduction is hilarious. The whole book is a conspiracy, but we all have to pretend otherwise, because like a true mystery, we will never know the answer. It's perfect for a collection like this and a lot of fun to read.
I would be very interested if they published another volume of this book, with different stories for the same illustrations, even written by the same authors or written by new ones. That probably won't happen, but it would certainly be a cool idea, to keep the open nature of the original alive.
The best stories in this collection have a sense of possibility, of capturing a moment at the beginning or in the middle of a much larger tale, inviting the reader to continue off the page with their own imagination. Those are also the stories that, for me, capture the spirit of the original Harris Burdick book (which I inexplicably found in my house – how did it get there?) -- the endless promise, and the strange and wonderful and dreadful directions in which each illustration can be taken.
Some of these stories end right before you expect them to, in a dramatically ambiguous way. Jon Scieszka’s funny but creepy “Under the Rug”, about a man who doesn’t like his nagging Grandma much, ends like this; you think you know what’s to come, but it ends right before the big moment, on such a note that you can imagine it going another way. Jules Feiffer’s melancholy and weird “Uninvited Guests”, about a children’s book illustrator who has no real people in his life anymore, does the same thing.
Others are even more enigmatic: they don’t really end at all. Where they end (or when, I should say) feels right, but they don’t provide closure in terms of plot. They spiral outward in multiple directions at once, like the handcar with the sail in Cory Doctorow’s fantastic fantasy of multiple universes, “Another Place, Another Time” or they stop abruptly at the most unsettling moment possible, as in Sherman Alexie’s “A Strange Day in July”, about mean-spirited twins who invent a third sibling and find that she is just as mean-spirited as they are. Walter Dean Myers’ “Mr. Linden’s Library” also does this; it tells the story of a girl who is sucked into a never-ending book about a boy swimming in the midst of the sea without ever reaching shore, and the ending is evocative and sad but suggestive of more to come. (Like the story she’s in, it will never truly end.) “The Third-Floor Bedroom” by Kate DiCamillo also has a suggestive ending, but a less sad and more hopeful one; it reminded me a lot of “The Yellow Wallpaper” at first, but took it in a less creepy direction so it ended up being about a woman’s growing understanding of herself, compassion for her caretaker, and hope for the future, instead of a descent into madness. (Oh well.)
My favorite story is MT Anderson’s “Just Desert”, which calls to mind another of his disturbing short stories I’ve read, “Watch and Wake” in Gothic: Ten Original Dark Tales. Both left me feeling off-kilter, with goose bumps, because they present a terrible, disorienting sensation that something we’ve always trusted unconditionally (like the existence of the world; the existence of the self) is a vulnerable, fragile construct. This story is just awesome, and uses the illustration as a jumping off point for truly strange developments.
Of course, those stories that are complete in themselves still use the illustrations and captions to good effect (for the most part) and many are quite memorable, such as Stephen King’s “The House on Maple Street” and Linda Sue Park’s “The Harp”. They are just not my favorites -- maybe because they have heartwarming endings and not creepy ones, which is just my poor taste showing.
Like most collections, there were a few stories that didn’t work for me (okay, five). They weren’t poorly written and they will probably appeal to other readers. I thought Tabitha King’s “Archie Smith, Boy Wonder” was oddly pointless, like it missed the point both of the illustration and of how to write a story for children. Gregory Maguire’s “Missing in Venice” worked in the image of a big ship in a narrow canal in a way I didn’t expect (I think because of how literal it was) but I was impatient with the narrator and the plot. Lois Lowry’s “The Seven Chairs” had too sentimental of an ending and not much plot. I like the way Chris Van Allsburg’s “Oscar and Alphonse” ended (another example of a story that felt like a beginning of a larger tale) but otherwise it didn’t have enough detail to really draw me in; it didn’t feel fleshed out enough for me to believe the caterpillars knew the answer to the “mystery of life” (maybe I missed the point on this one, though, because obviously I am taking that one too literally). And while “Captain Tory” by Louis Sachar was a nice story about a beloved ghost discovering a new life, I don’t think it did justice to the illustration. It’s a very basic story for such a complicated picture.
Oh, and Lemony Snicket’s paranoid introduction is hilarious. The whole book is a conspiracy, but we all have to pretend otherwise, because like a true mystery, we will never know the answer. It's perfect for a collection like this and a lot of fun to read.
I would be very interested if they published another volume of this book, with different stories for the same illustrations, even written by the same authors or written by new ones. That probably won't happen, but it would certainly be a cool idea, to keep the open nature of the original alive.
January 12, 2012
Reviewed by Rusty Key Writer: Jordan B. Nielsen
Recommended for: Children (?) ages 10 and up for independent reading, or 7 and up if being read to (get ready to explain a lot of abstract metaphysical concepts to little Tommy), though I suspect this book will find its largest audience among those old enough to be lured in by the all-star author line up (guilty).
One Word Summary: Disappointing.
It was too good to be true. A collection of children’s short stories by fourteen of the most celebrated kidlit authors of our time! Kate DiCamillo (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Because of Winn Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, her every written word a gift!), Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars, The Birthday Ball, the woman who launched the Distopic genre!), John Sceszka (The Stinky Cheese Man, SpaceHeadz, crusader for middle grade male fiction!) M.T. Anderson (Ok, we ripped Game of Sunken Places to shreds, but Feed was fantastic!) Stephen King (You know him), all contained with several other marquee-dazzling names and shepherded by none other than Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji, The Polar Express, Zathura). Surely this collection would be the exemplar of the greatest visionaries of children’s literature that planet Earth has to offer. These guys could kill an elephant with the weight of their combined Newberry Medals. Alas. The great mystery of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick is not the identity of the eponymous alleged illustrator, but how this noble project could have resulted in such a letdown.
There’s a ‘story’ behind this collection. In an introduction set forth by Lemony Snicket and an epilogue by Van Allsburg we are made to believe that some twenty-five years ago, a man named Harris Burdick walked
into the offices of one Peter Wenders, a children’s book publisher. Burdick had with him fourteen gorgeous illustrations, each titled and given an alluring caption. Burdick wanted to know if Wenders would like to see the stories that went along with these striking images. Wenders agreed enthusiastically and told Burdick to come back the next day with the full works, but that was the last he saw of the man. Harris Burdick was never seen or heard from again. Some years later Wenders showed the prints to Van Allsburg who was similarly captivated by them and became intent on sharing them with the world.
As it happens (sorry to ruin it) this back-story is a work of fiction in and of itself, though it’s hard to be thoroughly fooled by the pretense, as the eerily realistic, glossy style of the black and white illustrations is so apparently that of Van Allsburg himself. In 1984 the images and their captions were indeed published alone under the title The Mystery of Harris Burdick
and were meant as a sort of fuse to ignite the imaginations of young aspiring writers. What could be the story behind the tense picture of a man holding a chair above his head, about to strike a mysterious lump rising from beneath the carpet? What’s going on in that picture of the seated nun hovering some twenty feet off the ground? Discontent at letting these questions go answered, Van Allsburg enlisted the help of the afore mentioned heavy-weight authors to craft the tales that would fit the pictures.
The result that we have here in these fourteen short stories might alternately be titled ‘The Book of Orphans’ or ‘Maladies that Afflict the Young’ or ‘Gee, Aren’t Stepparents Awful’. It really isn’t the fault of the authors themselves that these links came together to form such a depressing chain, it’s not as if they were comparing plot lines along the way (I would suppose). Nor do the illustrations which inspired these works suggest anything overtly tragic. Indeed the opposite is true. “Burdick’s” illustrations are every bit the wonderment. In Steven King’s piece we see a house being propelled skyward by rocket boosters. In DiCamillo’s we have an open window set against a wallpaper of doves where one bird begins to come to life and peel itself from the pattern. Gregory McGuire was given the cover image, a luxury cruise liner smashing into the canals of Venice. But into that rocket propelled house King shoved a stepfather who was promising a savage beating to his step children, DiCamillo’s wallpaper covered the room of an abandoned girl dying of pneumonia, and McGuire’s Venice contains a boy trying to stop his vain stepmother from stealing his inheritance now that his father is dead.
Great fodder for inspiration these pictures may have been, all of them, but what we have, by in large, is a collection of shockingly depressing, borderline inappropriate stories that capture none of the joy that one might have hoped for. I cannot imagine the bulk of this material holding the interest of a young reader. There are exceptions. M.T. Anderson’s piece about a boy who discovers a startling secret about reality as he knows it (I won’t spoil this one for you) had a great wink at the end. King’s piece, though grim, contained the only ounce of suspense I felt while reading this book. Louis Sachar’s tale about the ghost of a ship’s captain that wanders the street of a coastal town looking for his boat was nicely chilling.
But (and I can’t even believe this myself) Lois Lowry and Jules Feiffer’s stories run neck and neck for the title of ‘most puzzlingly out of place’. Feiffer used his page time to create an allegory for the worthlessness of his own life where he appears to burn to death in his own house at the end. Lois Lowry’s story may be about a girl who can levitate, and then grows up to become a nun, but allow me to treat you to a few of Lowry’s descriptions of Mary Katherine’s ‘talent’:
‘None of them noticed that MK had an astounding talent.’ ‘She practiced. Alone in her bedroom, supposedly doing her homework.’ ‘Mary Katherine did not feel guilty or secretive about her peculiar skill…It was, for MK, more like a pleasurable, solitary hobby.’ ‘It was something she preferred to do alone.’
Are you blushing yet? Need I spell out the metaphor for you?
My heart ached to soar with exultation, to be thrilled by the incredible descriptive powers of these authors, their ability to capture essential truths of human existence and package those revelations for young audiences, as they have each done so many times before. Or at the very least I would have liked to have been somewhat charmed. Instead with each new story I found myself weakly hoping that it was going to start getting better soon. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what got into these guys.
For more reviews, author interviews, articles and reading lists from The Rusty Key, visit us at www.therustykey.com
Recommended for: Children (?) ages 10 and up for independent reading, or 7 and up if being read to (get ready to explain a lot of abstract metaphysical concepts to little Tommy), though I suspect this book will find its largest audience among those old enough to be lured in by the all-star author line up (guilty).
One Word Summary: Disappointing.
It was too good to be true. A collection of children’s short stories by fourteen of the most celebrated kidlit authors of our time! Kate DiCamillo (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Because of Winn Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, her every written word a gift!), Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars, The Birthday Ball, the woman who launched the Distopic genre!), John Sceszka (The Stinky Cheese Man, SpaceHeadz, crusader for middle grade male fiction!) M.T. Anderson (Ok, we ripped Game of Sunken Places to shreds, but Feed was fantastic!) Stephen King (You know him), all contained with several other marquee-dazzling names and shepherded by none other than Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji, The Polar Express, Zathura). Surely this collection would be the exemplar of the greatest visionaries of children’s literature that planet Earth has to offer. These guys could kill an elephant with the weight of their combined Newberry Medals. Alas. The great mystery of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick is not the identity of the eponymous alleged illustrator, but how this noble project could have resulted in such a letdown.
There’s a ‘story’ behind this collection. In an introduction set forth by Lemony Snicket and an epilogue by Van Allsburg we are made to believe that some twenty-five years ago, a man named Harris Burdick walked
into the offices of one Peter Wenders, a children’s book publisher. Burdick had with him fourteen gorgeous illustrations, each titled and given an alluring caption. Burdick wanted to know if Wenders would like to see the stories that went along with these striking images. Wenders agreed enthusiastically and told Burdick to come back the next day with the full works, but that was the last he saw of the man. Harris Burdick was never seen or heard from again. Some years later Wenders showed the prints to Van Allsburg who was similarly captivated by them and became intent on sharing them with the world.
As it happens (sorry to ruin it) this back-story is a work of fiction in and of itself, though it’s hard to be thoroughly fooled by the pretense, as the eerily realistic, glossy style of the black and white illustrations is so apparently that of Van Allsburg himself. In 1984 the images and their captions were indeed published alone under the title The Mystery of Harris Burdick
and were meant as a sort of fuse to ignite the imaginations of young aspiring writers. What could be the story behind the tense picture of a man holding a chair above his head, about to strike a mysterious lump rising from beneath the carpet? What’s going on in that picture of the seated nun hovering some twenty feet off the ground? Discontent at letting these questions go answered, Van Allsburg enlisted the help of the afore mentioned heavy-weight authors to craft the tales that would fit the pictures.
The result that we have here in these fourteen short stories might alternately be titled ‘The Book of Orphans’ or ‘Maladies that Afflict the Young’ or ‘Gee, Aren’t Stepparents Awful’. It really isn’t the fault of the authors themselves that these links came together to form such a depressing chain, it’s not as if they were comparing plot lines along the way (I would suppose). Nor do the illustrations which inspired these works suggest anything overtly tragic. Indeed the opposite is true. “Burdick’s” illustrations are every bit the wonderment. In Steven King’s piece we see a house being propelled skyward by rocket boosters. In DiCamillo’s we have an open window set against a wallpaper of doves where one bird begins to come to life and peel itself from the pattern. Gregory McGuire was given the cover image, a luxury cruise liner smashing into the canals of Venice. But into that rocket propelled house King shoved a stepfather who was promising a savage beating to his step children, DiCamillo’s wallpaper covered the room of an abandoned girl dying of pneumonia, and McGuire’s Venice contains a boy trying to stop his vain stepmother from stealing his inheritance now that his father is dead.
Great fodder for inspiration these pictures may have been, all of them, but what we have, by in large, is a collection of shockingly depressing, borderline inappropriate stories that capture none of the joy that one might have hoped for. I cannot imagine the bulk of this material holding the interest of a young reader. There are exceptions. M.T. Anderson’s piece about a boy who discovers a startling secret about reality as he knows it (I won’t spoil this one for you) had a great wink at the end. King’s piece, though grim, contained the only ounce of suspense I felt while reading this book. Louis Sachar’s tale about the ghost of a ship’s captain that wanders the street of a coastal town looking for his boat was nicely chilling.
But (and I can’t even believe this myself) Lois Lowry and Jules Feiffer’s stories run neck and neck for the title of ‘most puzzlingly out of place’. Feiffer used his page time to create an allegory for the worthlessness of his own life where he appears to burn to death in his own house at the end. Lois Lowry’s story may be about a girl who can levitate, and then grows up to become a nun, but allow me to treat you to a few of Lowry’s descriptions of Mary Katherine’s ‘talent’:
‘None of them noticed that MK had an astounding talent.’ ‘She practiced. Alone in her bedroom, supposedly doing her homework.’ ‘Mary Katherine did not feel guilty or secretive about her peculiar skill…It was, for MK, more like a pleasurable, solitary hobby.’ ‘It was something she preferred to do alone.’
Are you blushing yet? Need I spell out the metaphor for you?
My heart ached to soar with exultation, to be thrilled by the incredible descriptive powers of these authors, their ability to capture essential truths of human existence and package those revelations for young audiences, as they have each done so many times before. Or at the very least I would have liked to have been somewhat charmed. Instead with each new story I found myself weakly hoping that it was going to start getting better soon. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what got into these guys.
For more reviews, author interviews, articles and reading lists from The Rusty Key, visit us at www.therustykey.com
February 5, 2012
When I was a young child, I wrote a letter to the publisher of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, offering my theories on what might have happened to the author. I was such a cute, precocious little nerd. Now as an adult I can obviously tell who really illustrated that book, but it's still much beloved by me. I was super excited about this collection, but I felt like it was just OK. There weren't a lot of standout stories for me. I found it really interesting how many times sailors and sea voyages were themes, and how many times the authors chose to end their story with the quotation from the original picture book. Lemony Snicket's intro was amazing and I loved the story by MT Anderson, but this wasn't a must read like I'd hoped. Also it was bizarrely categorized as a Young Adult book at my library which I think is because a lot of the authors write for teens but I think it holds more appeal for people like me who read the original book as children.
November 22, 2021
This is an interesting book - First of all you have the premise of Chris Van Allsburg book - the story of a man who went to a publishers with a promise of an amazing book to follow - with only the images as an appetizer only never to return with the promised manuscript (okay the introduction to the book explains it way better than I did) but thats the idea. The images of this book being said artwork and the reader is left to make up the stories that they could have been.
Until now - as a rather interesting project you have an intriguing mix of authors who have written their own short stories using the images as inspiration - if you like these are the untold stories until now.
What you get is a mixture of totally random stories from the strange to the sublime with a few boys own adventures thrown in for good measure.
So for me the artwork is incredible but confusing (as it was intended) now accompanied with strange and wonderful tales which as you can image at times add to the art and at times appear to diminish it (at least reduce the sense of wonder) so for me this is a fun book but you have to be ready to be rather subjective with its contents.
Until now - as a rather interesting project you have an intriguing mix of authors who have written their own short stories using the images as inspiration - if you like these are the untold stories until now.
What you get is a mixture of totally random stories from the strange to the sublime with a few boys own adventures thrown in for good measure.
So for me the artwork is incredible but confusing (as it was intended) now accompanied with strange and wonderful tales which as you can image at times add to the art and at times appear to diminish it (at least reduce the sense of wonder) so for me this is a fun book but you have to be ready to be rather subjective with its contents.
September 2, 2018
This book turned out to be a mixed bag for me. I was vaguely aware of the whole Harris Burdick thing (it's explained in both introductions--one of which is at the end of the book). The first introduction by Lemony Snicket almost made me DNF; I get that he's got a certain shtick, but I find it grating and condescending. Anyway, once I got to the actual stories, I had an easier time of it.
Here are my thoughts on the individual stories:
"Archie Smith, Boy Wonder" by Tabitha King - This was barely a story, so it probably wasn't the best one to start with (although, maybe the stories are in the order that the illustrations in the original book were in). After a quick scene to set things up, the rest of the story is basically a short, overheard conversation. I guess it helps explain the illustration, but it was pretty underwhelming.
2 stars
"Under the Rug" by Jon Scieszka - I quite liked this one. It's funny, and a bit scary, and shows us why we should always listen to the wisdom of our elders...
3.5 stars
"A Strange Day in July" by Sherman Alexie - So this author took an innocent little illustration with just a hint of weirdness and turned it into something that could be the basis of a horror movie. The two little psychopaths in this story might make you vow never to have children. (Timmy takes delight in screaming at his teacher until she cries. Nice kid.) Don't worry, though; these two little monsters get what they deserve.
3 stars
"Missing in Venice" by Gregory Maguire - This story had sort of a fairytale feel to it, with a quasi-wicked stepmother and a witch and gingerbread, but... It's hard for me to like a story when there are glaring technical problems. You can't write a story from one person's point of view, and then suddenly slip into another character's mind for a few sentences, hoping the reader won't notice; it just doesn't work.
2.5 stars
"Another Place, Another Time" by Cory Doctorow - This was an interesting little story with children asking questions that make you think (in this case, the question being, "Can you move sideways in time?"). Although I wasn't crazy about the characters, the setting and plot were interesting enough that I liked the story.
3.5 stars
"Uninvited Guests" by Jules Feiffer - A stupid, self-indulgent pile of crap. The main character was completely unlikable and unsympathetic. Seriously, are we supposed to care that death is coming for a narcissist who cares more about a stuffed snake and his fictional characters than his own family? No wonder his wife left him. (I bet she wished that toy snake were real so it would've strangled him.)
1 star
"The Harp" by Linda Sue Park - This was a really cute story that might've gotten a better rating from me if not for that ending. What was that? It almost seemed like the author got tired of writing and just gave up. Until that point, though, it was a cute fairytale-like story about some children who had to break a curse.
4 stars
"Mr. Linden's Library" by Walter Dean Myers - This had an interesting setup that made me think we might be going down a path similar to The Neverending Story. But... you know what? I can't even remember how this one ended, even though I only finished it a few hours ago. If it wasn't that memorable, it couldn't have been that good.
2 stars
"The Seven Chairs" by Lois Lowry - This was okay. I didn't love it or hate it, really. It offered a good explanation for a very strange picture, though!
3 stars
"The Third-Floor Bedroom" by Kate DiCamillo - Okay, so maybe I just liked this one because of the astute observation about nose-whistlers. Or maybe not. DiCamillo has this way of making characters seem so real and distinct. This was probably my favourite story in the whole book, not necessarily because of the subject matter, but just because of how well it was written.
4.5 stars
"Just Desert" by M. T. Anderson - This story would have scared me half to death when I was a kid. It's heavy for the target age, and if you really understand the concept, it's pretty terrifying. (So is the drawing that goes along with it, though, so I guess it works in that respect.)
2 stars
"Captain Tory" by Louis Sachar - While rather bland, this was decent. I'm not sure I would've gone in the same direction with this one, though; the illustration makes the captain look a lot more threatening.
3 stars
"Oscar and Alphonse: The Farkas Conjecture" by Chris Van Allsburg - The writing in this one was kind of a miss for me, technically speaking. I also felt it was kind of... manipulative. It's one of those stories that has an obvious end point, and that ending just seems like it's trying way too hard. I didn't like this one much.
2 stars
You'll notice that that's only thirteen stories. For some reason (copyright issues, I'm guessing), the story by Stephen King is not included in the e-book edition. That's disappointing; I would've liked to read that one!
So this was just an okay collection of stories. The illustrations are interesting to look at, though.
Here are my thoughts on the individual stories:
"Archie Smith, Boy Wonder" by Tabitha King - This was barely a story, so it probably wasn't the best one to start with (although, maybe the stories are in the order that the illustrations in the original book were in). After a quick scene to set things up, the rest of the story is basically a short, overheard conversation. I guess it helps explain the illustration, but it was pretty underwhelming.
2 stars
"Under the Rug" by Jon Scieszka - I quite liked this one. It's funny, and a bit scary, and shows us why we should always listen to the wisdom of our elders...
3.5 stars
"A Strange Day in July" by Sherman Alexie - So this author took an innocent little illustration with just a hint of weirdness and turned it into something that could be the basis of a horror movie. The two little psychopaths in this story might make you vow never to have children. (Timmy takes delight in screaming at his teacher until she cries. Nice kid.) Don't worry, though; these two little monsters get what they deserve.
3 stars
"Missing in Venice" by Gregory Maguire - This story had sort of a fairytale feel to it, with a quasi-wicked stepmother and a witch and gingerbread, but... It's hard for me to like a story when there are glaring technical problems. You can't write a story from one person's point of view, and then suddenly slip into another character's mind for a few sentences, hoping the reader won't notice; it just doesn't work.
2.5 stars
"Another Place, Another Time" by Cory Doctorow - This was an interesting little story with children asking questions that make you think (in this case, the question being, "Can you move sideways in time?"). Although I wasn't crazy about the characters, the setting and plot were interesting enough that I liked the story.
3.5 stars
"Uninvited Guests" by Jules Feiffer - A stupid, self-indulgent pile of crap. The main character was completely unlikable and unsympathetic. Seriously, are we supposed to care that death is coming for a narcissist who cares more about a stuffed snake and his fictional characters than his own family? No wonder his wife left him. (I bet she wished that toy snake were real so it would've strangled him.)
1 star
"The Harp" by Linda Sue Park - This was a really cute story that might've gotten a better rating from me if not for that ending. What was that? It almost seemed like the author got tired of writing and just gave up. Until that point, though, it was a cute fairytale-like story about some children who had to break a curse.
4 stars
"Mr. Linden's Library" by Walter Dean Myers - This had an interesting setup that made me think we might be going down a path similar to The Neverending Story. But... you know what? I can't even remember how this one ended, even though I only finished it a few hours ago. If it wasn't that memorable, it couldn't have been that good.
2 stars
"The Seven Chairs" by Lois Lowry - This was okay. I didn't love it or hate it, really. It offered a good explanation for a very strange picture, though!
3 stars
"The Third-Floor Bedroom" by Kate DiCamillo - Okay, so maybe I just liked this one because of the astute observation about nose-whistlers. Or maybe not. DiCamillo has this way of making characters seem so real and distinct. This was probably my favourite story in the whole book, not necessarily because of the subject matter, but just because of how well it was written.
4.5 stars
"Just Desert" by M. T. Anderson - This story would have scared me half to death when I was a kid. It's heavy for the target age, and if you really understand the concept, it's pretty terrifying. (So is the drawing that goes along with it, though, so I guess it works in that respect.)
2 stars
"Captain Tory" by Louis Sachar - While rather bland, this was decent. I'm not sure I would've gone in the same direction with this one, though; the illustration makes the captain look a lot more threatening.
3 stars
"Oscar and Alphonse: The Farkas Conjecture" by Chris Van Allsburg - The writing in this one was kind of a miss for me, technically speaking. I also felt it was kind of... manipulative. It's one of those stories that has an obvious end point, and that ending just seems like it's trying way too hard. I didn't like this one much.
2 stars
You'll notice that that's only thirteen stories. For some reason (copyright issues, I'm guessing), the story by Stephen King is not included in the e-book edition. That's disappointing; I would've liked to read that one!
So this was just an okay collection of stories. The illustrations are interesting to look at, though.
December 9, 2011
One of my favorite children's books of all time is The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. I was so excited to find a story by Stephen King based on one of the illustrations in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, so I was 14x excited to find that a whole book of short stories based on the illustrations was coming out!
These are stories that would appeal to a wide range of children and teens, and probably many adults as well, just like the original book. The stories are filled with magic and creepy twists. I was kind of surprised that most of the stories ended with the illustration's caption - so that there was still quite a bit of mystery left. (I wrote a story several years ago based on "The Third Window," and I started it with the caption).
One of my favorite stories in the collection was "Just Deserts" by M.T. Anderson, I think because I had always thought this was a typo - shouldn't it be "just desserts"? The variation in spelling is explained in the story, and I did not see the twist coming. "The House on Maple Street" by Stephen King was another of my favorites. I was very intrigued by the "Oscar and Alphonse" story by Chris van Allsburg himself - did he write other stories based on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and where are they? Though I've read many of his books, this short story seemed a departure from the children's stories.
My hope is that more authors come forward with stories they've written based on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and there is a volume 2!
These are stories that would appeal to a wide range of children and teens, and probably many adults as well, just like the original book. The stories are filled with magic and creepy twists. I was kind of surprised that most of the stories ended with the illustration's caption - so that there was still quite a bit of mystery left. (I wrote a story several years ago based on "The Third Window," and I started it with the caption).
One of my favorite stories in the collection was "Just Deserts" by M.T. Anderson, I think because I had always thought this was a typo - shouldn't it be "just desserts"? The variation in spelling is explained in the story, and I did not see the twist coming. "The House on Maple Street" by Stephen King was another of my favorites. I was very intrigued by the "Oscar and Alphonse" story by Chris van Allsburg himself - did he write other stories based on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and where are they? Though I've read many of his books, this short story seemed a departure from the children's stories.
My hope is that more authors come forward with stories they've written based on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and there is a volume 2!
March 19, 2023
I loved this book.
"The Third-Floor Bedroom": One of Kate DiCamillo's beautiful stories, combining joy and anguish in the way she does.
"Captain Tory": A story with a happy ending. There should be more stories like this.
"Another Place, Another Time": This is the story for the picture. No other story could match so perfectly. It's a moving tale of family love, quests, and friendship. And of all the time we had in childhood, and the imagination, and how with that time and imagination, we could build anything, go anywhere, with our friends.
"The Seven Chairs": Sad; but uplifting at the end, both literally and figuratively.
"Under the Rug": Nasty, kind of funny.
"A Strange Day in July": Nasty but compelling, and SCARY.
"Uninvited Guests": Did this belong in a book for children? I don't think so.
"Just Desert": Very, very creepy. I hoped Anderson wouldn't go light and funny for the end, but to my relief, he stayed serious.
"Oscar and Alphonse": Another sad one.
"Missing in Venice": I actually liked this story, which surprised me, because I'm a bit prejudiced against Gregory Maguire. What I've read of his has been too campy and has a snide tone sometimes. But this story was heartfelt and kind of gentle.
"Mr. Linden's Library": It wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite. The story seemed kind of harsh.
"The Harp": A really nice one.
"Archie Smith, Boy Wonder": I'm not sure-sure what this Tabitha King story was about, but I liked it. A young boy's baseball dreams, with a little fantasy.
Dead mothers: 3.5
Dead fathers: 6
I don't know why, but almost all of these stories had an orphan or half-orphan for the main character.
"The Third-Floor Bedroom": One of Kate DiCamillo's beautiful stories, combining joy and anguish in the way she does.
"Captain Tory": A story with a happy ending. There should be more stories like this.
"Another Place, Another Time": This is the story for the picture. No other story could match so perfectly. It's a moving tale of family love, quests, and friendship. And of all the time we had in childhood, and the imagination, and how with that time and imagination, we could build anything, go anywhere, with our friends.
"The Seven Chairs": Sad; but uplifting at the end, both literally and figuratively.
"Under the Rug": Nasty, kind of funny.
"A Strange Day in July": Nasty but compelling, and SCARY.
"Uninvited Guests": Did this belong in a book for children? I don't think so.
"Just Desert": Very, very creepy. I hoped Anderson wouldn't go light and funny for the end, but to my relief, he stayed serious.
"Oscar and Alphonse": Another sad one.
"Missing in Venice": I actually liked this story, which surprised me, because I'm a bit prejudiced against Gregory Maguire. What I've read of his has been too campy and has a snide tone sometimes. But this story was heartfelt and kind of gentle.
"Mr. Linden's Library": It wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite. The story seemed kind of harsh.
"The Harp": A really nice one.
"Archie Smith, Boy Wonder": I'm not sure-sure what this Tabitha King story was about, but I liked it. A young boy's baseball dreams, with a little fantasy.
Dead mothers: 3.5
Dead fathers: 6
I don't know why, but almost all of these stories had an orphan or half-orphan for the main character.
December 8, 2016
2.5 out of 5
I just HAD to read this short story collection after reading its source of inspiration, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.
Eh, I guess my expectations were too high... Hey, but look at the impressive author list! It DOES sound too good to be true, haha
My favorite piece was Lemony Snicket's introduction. I also liked the stories by Jon Scieszka, Stephen King, M.T. Anderson and Louis Sachar. The others (by Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo and Chris Van Allsburg) ranged between okay and meh. Tabitha King's story was by far the worst (or I completely missed its point).
P.S. Check out this review by The Rusty Key. It nicely summarizes most of my own thoughts.
I just HAD to read this short story collection after reading its source of inspiration, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.
Eh, I guess my expectations were too high... Hey, but look at the impressive author list! It DOES sound too good to be true, haha
My favorite piece was Lemony Snicket's introduction. I also liked the stories by Jon Scieszka, Stephen King, M.T. Anderson and Louis Sachar. The others (by Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo and Chris Van Allsburg) ranged between okay and meh. Tabitha King's story was by far the worst (or I completely missed its point).
P.S. Check out this review by The Rusty Key. It nicely summarizes most of my own thoughts.
March 23, 2013
I CAN'T WAIT to read this series of stories! I have LOVED the Harris Burdick book for use to spawn creative writing from my elementary students! I am intrigued to read what famous authors had to say! Yippee! It is about time! ;-)
So, in reading all of the different stories from each illustration, I found about 3 that I really liked and the rest were okay. I think that because I have had so many students write so many creative stories to go along with the illustrations, it is hard to top some of them. Overall, an enjoyable and interesting read. If you are familiar with Harris Burdick and the illustrations, I think you will appreciate this book and all of the authors' contributions. :-)
So, in reading all of the different stories from each illustration, I found about 3 that I really liked and the rest were okay. I think that because I have had so many students write so many creative stories to go along with the illustrations, it is hard to top some of them. Overall, an enjoyable and interesting read. If you are familiar with Harris Burdick and the illustrations, I think you will appreciate this book and all of the authors' contributions. :-)
December 3, 2018
I was really disappointed in this book. I love some of these authors dearly & I love 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick' immensely - but I just found too many of the stories to be 'meh'. I bought this with the plan of reading them to my students, showing them examples of where these prompts can take you, but haven't found them sufficiently inspiring to do so. Oh well, I haven't had too many "misses" in the books I use with my students so the occasional one is to be expected.
January 16, 2024
creepy, unsettling. I didn't read them all and didn't want to. I love the concept of stories based on pictures, the collaboration of authors. But I don't love creep for the sake of creep.
May 26, 2020
Harris Burdick is a genius of a book: who but the wonderful Chris Van Allsburg could come up with such creepily evocative pictures and then leave it to the reader to invent an accompanying story for each one? There must be tens of thousands of these stories online now -this is such a perfect English class assignment. And then some savvy editor came up with this great idea: why not get top childrens book writers to invent stories? Delightful, of course.
February 22, 2020
Intriguing book about an author who left illustrations with captions with a publisher but never returned. Famous children’s writers have made their own versions based on the illustrations and captions and what they mean to them. My two favourite stories are; A Strange Day in July about twins who pretend they are triplets and Under the Rug about a ball of dust that turns into a creature.
June 21, 2020
A marvelous collection of eerie, exciting, and utterly amazing stories based on the astounding drawings of Harris Burdick.
I will return to this collection often.
I will return to this collection often.
February 8, 2012
More like 3.8 stars...
I'd "read" the original book by Chris van Allsburg years ago, and was really excited to see that some of my favorite authors had written stories to go along with the fabulous illustrations.
Some of the stories were great: Another Place, Another Time by Cory Doctorow about parallel universes; Mr. Linden's Library by Walter Dean Myers about the power of books.
Some were really good - I particularly enjoyed the fantasies: The Harp by Linda Sue Park about bickering sisters who fall under a wizard's spell; The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry about an empowered flying nun; Just Desert by M. T. Anderson, with an interesting twist about staying in your own neighborhood. A couple were heartwarming: The Third Floor Bedroom by Kate DiCamillo with a sister writing letters to her soldier brother and Oscar and Alphonse by Chris Van Allsburg about caterpillars who can spell.
I was sort of disappointed that the Stephen King was an old short story, but I think he was originally inspired by the same picture, so I guess that's fair. I didn't enjoy the other five stories as much as I'd hoped, but the book is still worth reading for the best ones. I still think that this would be a great creative writing project for students.
I'd "read" the original book by Chris van Allsburg years ago, and was really excited to see that some of my favorite authors had written stories to go along with the fabulous illustrations.
Some of the stories were great: Another Place, Another Time by Cory Doctorow about parallel universes; Mr. Linden's Library by Walter Dean Myers about the power of books.
Some were really good - I particularly enjoyed the fantasies: The Harp by Linda Sue Park about bickering sisters who fall under a wizard's spell; The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry about an empowered flying nun; Just Desert by M. T. Anderson, with an interesting twist about staying in your own neighborhood. A couple were heartwarming: The Third Floor Bedroom by Kate DiCamillo with a sister writing letters to her soldier brother and Oscar and Alphonse by Chris Van Allsburg about caterpillars who can spell.
I was sort of disappointed that the Stephen King was an old short story, but I think he was originally inspired by the same picture, so I guess that's fair. I didn't enjoy the other five stories as much as I'd hoped, but the book is still worth reading for the best ones. I still think that this would be a great creative writing project for students.
March 21, 2011
When I was in grade 5 or 6 (some time in the late ‘90s) my teacher decided that we were going to do a literary unit on Chris Van Allsburg. The weeks that followed had us reading Jumanji, The Z was Zapped, The Polar Express, and every other Van Allsburg book that we had available in our school library. With each book we did a project and the one that went with The Mysteries of Harris Burdick was my favourite. That’s because the project that we did was this book.
Ok, it wasn’t this book exactly, but everyone in the class had to sign up for one of the pictures and write a short story incorporating both it and the caption below it.
This collection is a wonderful use of the imagination that will captivate audiences all over the world. It really showcases the power of a picture and how it can help form an entire stream of consciousness. I give it 9/10.
My thanks to both netGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read this.
Stay tuned for a more in-depth review closer to the publication date.
Ok, it wasn’t this book exactly, but everyone in the class had to sign up for one of the pictures and write a short story incorporating both it and the caption below it.
This collection is a wonderful use of the imagination that will captivate audiences all over the world. It really showcases the power of a picture and how it can help form an entire stream of consciousness. I give it 9/10.
My thanks to both netGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read this.
Stay tuned for a more in-depth review closer to the publication date.
March 28, 2020
I've owned this book for years; a gift from my awesome husband who knew I would be absolutely delighted to see the the illustrations of Harris Burdick come to life with stories by authors who I know and adore.
This summer I finally sat down to read this gem only to discover that the stories were… Strange. Fantastical. Definitely for outside-of-the-box thinkers.
I honestly enjoyed probably one story in this collection. (Props to Sherman Alexie's "A Strange Day in July" for jussssst the right amount of creepy!) And after that… I just felt so disappointed because there's no way my 8-year-old students at school who are mystified by the original book will be able to wrap their heads around these stories. If I was teaching an older bunch this might go over better, but for my group… they just would not understand it at all.
I could see some adults I know really enjoying these weird, short stories. But as for what I hoped it would be, it's a big letdown in my book.
This summer I finally sat down to read this gem only to discover that the stories were… Strange. Fantastical. Definitely for outside-of-the-box thinkers.
I honestly enjoyed probably one story in this collection. (Props to Sherman Alexie's "A Strange Day in July" for jussssst the right amount of creepy!) And after that… I just felt so disappointed because there's no way my 8-year-old students at school who are mystified by the original book will be able to wrap their heads around these stories. If I was teaching an older bunch this might go over better, but for my group… they just would not understand it at all.
I could see some adults I know really enjoying these weird, short stories. But as for what I hoped it would be, it's a big letdown in my book.
September 27, 2017
Short stories are often what stick in my head. So reading this for the second time was like turning a light on in my mind.
Caterpillars that do math.
Metal that invades houses.
Ships in Venice.
Fake pumpkins.
These stories and pictures will randomly pop into my head, and often I have no idea where they are from. Now I do.
My favourite stories are "Missing in Venice" by Gregory Maguire, "Just Desert" by M. T. Anderson, and "The House in Maple Street" by Stephen King. But I also really love "The Seven Chairs" by Lois Lowry and "Oscar and Alphonse" by Chris Van Allsburg. And all the other stories. And the introduction by Lemony Snicket. So yeah, I really love this book.
Caterpillars that do math.
Metal that invades houses.
Ships in Venice.
Fake pumpkins.
These stories and pictures will randomly pop into my head, and often I have no idea where they are from. Now I do.
My favourite stories are "Missing in Venice" by Gregory Maguire, "Just Desert" by M. T. Anderson, and "The House in Maple Street" by Stephen King. But I also really love "The Seven Chairs" by Lois Lowry and "Oscar and Alphonse" by Chris Van Allsburg. And all the other stories. And the introduction by Lemony Snicket. So yeah, I really love this book.
May 25, 2019
I don't read a lot of short stories, but May is Short Story Month, and I typically put out a display at my library. This year, I decided I should take my own advice and read what I'm encouraging my patrons to read. So I chose this book which has long intrigued me. Unlike many people drawn to this book, I did not grow up with the original, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. I have no nostalgia for this work, but I can see how useful it would have been for creative writing instruction through the years. The nice thing about this collection is that the illustrations, and even some of the stories, can still be used in that way. Some of the stories don't really have endings, lending themselves to being finished by the reader. Still others had me thinking up multiple other ways of ending the story.
I do agree with other reviewers who have said the collection as a whole is a bit mediocre. I liked about half of the stories to some extent, but I only really loved about a third of them. But the stories I really enjoyed made the whole reading experience worth it.
My ratings for each story are as follows:
Archie Smith, Boy Wonder by Tabitha King: 1/5 stars
Under the Rug by Jon Scieszka: 1/5 stars
A Strange Day in July by Sherman Alexie: 2/5 stars
Missing in Venice by Gregory Maguire: 3/5 stars
Another Place, Another Time by Cory Doctorow: 4/5 stars
Uninvited Guests by Jules Feiffer: 1/5 stars
The Harp by Linda Sue Park: 4/5 stars
Mr. Linden's Library by Walter Dean Myers: 2/5 stars
The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry: 2/5 stars
The Third-Floor Bedroom by Kate DiCamillo: 4/5 stars
Just Desert by M.T. Anderson: 5/5 stars
Captain Tory by Louis Sachar: 3/5 stars
Oscar and Alphonse by Chris Van Allsburg: 2/5 stars
The House on Maple Street by Stephen King: 5/5 stars
So, the average for this collection is 2.78, which I rounded up to 3 stars.
I don't have much to say about the stories I didn't care for. Mostly, I just found them boring. "Uninvited Guests" is worth mentioning, as it seemed much more like a story for adults. Is it a metaphor? Is the narrator hallucinating? Either way, it was a convoluted story that didn't hold my interest. "The Seven Chairs" also felt like it was written more for adults. It was ok, but the illustration lends itself to a much creepier story, so I was ultimately disappointed.
Now for the stories I really enjoyed. "Another Place, Another Time," was the first story in the collection to really grab my attention. More than any of the others up to that point, it really captured the mysterious, unsettling nature of Van Allsburg's illustrations. It didn't go the way I thought it would, but I liked what Doctorow did with it nonetheless. And it really sparked my own imagination, as I kept thinking of different endings it could have (which is actually very fitting for this story). Doctorow's tale is also one of the few that I thought kids would really enjoy. The children's adventurous nature, as well as the protagonist's longing for his father, should be relatable to young readers.
"The Harp" was a bit of a fairy-tale, which I tend to enjoy. I liked the dual narrative and how everything came together in the end. The biggest weakness for me was a stretch of exposition near the end that would have been better conveyed through action. The same events could have happened in real-time, in about the same amount of words, and it would have been more exciting. As written, it pulled me out of the story a bit. Still, a good story overall and one I think most kids would enjoy.
"The Third-Floor Bedroom" was unique because of its format, written entirely in one-sided letters. I really enjoyed this style and felt Pearlie's character shined through her letters to her brother. Kate DiCamillo has a knack for writing really vivid, believable characters. They jump off the page and seem like real people. That was what I loved best about her book, Because of Winn-Dixie, and that talent is on display in this story as well. Plus, I enjoyed the nod to the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Most kids won't have read that story yet, but it gives older readers something to think about.
Then there's M.T. Anderson's brilliant "Just Desert." So creepy! I loved this one! I won't say much for fear of spoiling it, but let me just say this is the one story I could totally see giving kids nightmares.
And finally, there's Stephen King's "The House on Maple Street." I expected this one to be very good and I was not disappointed. This was the one story that created real tension and had me on the edge of my seat, drowning out all the distractions around me. Obviously, it has more of an adult vibe, even though it's about kids. But kids should relate to it and enjoy it, assuming they don't find the family dynamics too upsetting. I admit that while I have enjoyed several movies based on King's books, I haven't actually read any of his work before because I think most of it would be too disturbing for me. However, I enjoy his writing style and will have to check out some of his less scary stuff.
While I didn't think this was a stellar collection overall, it has enough going for it to be worth your time.
Side note: I found it in my library's YA collection, but after reading it, I think it would fit more comfortably in our Tween section for grades 5-8.
I do agree with other reviewers who have said the collection as a whole is a bit mediocre. I liked about half of the stories to some extent, but I only really loved about a third of them. But the stories I really enjoyed made the whole reading experience worth it.
My ratings for each story are as follows:
Archie Smith, Boy Wonder by Tabitha King: 1/5 stars
Under the Rug by Jon Scieszka: 1/5 stars
A Strange Day in July by Sherman Alexie: 2/5 stars
Missing in Venice by Gregory Maguire: 3/5 stars
Another Place, Another Time by Cory Doctorow: 4/5 stars
Uninvited Guests by Jules Feiffer: 1/5 stars
The Harp by Linda Sue Park: 4/5 stars
Mr. Linden's Library by Walter Dean Myers: 2/5 stars
The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry: 2/5 stars
The Third-Floor Bedroom by Kate DiCamillo: 4/5 stars
Just Desert by M.T. Anderson: 5/5 stars
Captain Tory by Louis Sachar: 3/5 stars
Oscar and Alphonse by Chris Van Allsburg: 2/5 stars
The House on Maple Street by Stephen King: 5/5 stars
So, the average for this collection is 2.78, which I rounded up to 3 stars.
I don't have much to say about the stories I didn't care for. Mostly, I just found them boring. "Uninvited Guests" is worth mentioning, as it seemed much more like a story for adults. Is it a metaphor? Is the narrator hallucinating? Either way, it was a convoluted story that didn't hold my interest. "The Seven Chairs" also felt like it was written more for adults. It was ok, but the illustration lends itself to a much creepier story, so I was ultimately disappointed.
Now for the stories I really enjoyed. "Another Place, Another Time," was the first story in the collection to really grab my attention. More than any of the others up to that point, it really captured the mysterious, unsettling nature of Van Allsburg's illustrations. It didn't go the way I thought it would, but I liked what Doctorow did with it nonetheless. And it really sparked my own imagination, as I kept thinking of different endings it could have (which is actually very fitting for this story). Doctorow's tale is also one of the few that I thought kids would really enjoy. The children's adventurous nature, as well as the protagonist's longing for his father, should be relatable to young readers.
"The Harp" was a bit of a fairy-tale, which I tend to enjoy. I liked the dual narrative and how everything came together in the end. The biggest weakness for me was a stretch of exposition near the end that would have been better conveyed through action. The same events could have happened in real-time, in about the same amount of words, and it would have been more exciting. As written, it pulled me out of the story a bit. Still, a good story overall and one I think most kids would enjoy.
"The Third-Floor Bedroom" was unique because of its format, written entirely in one-sided letters. I really enjoyed this style and felt Pearlie's character shined through her letters to her brother. Kate DiCamillo has a knack for writing really vivid, believable characters. They jump off the page and seem like real people. That was what I loved best about her book, Because of Winn-Dixie, and that talent is on display in this story as well. Plus, I enjoyed the nod to the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Most kids won't have read that story yet, but it gives older readers something to think about.
Then there's M.T. Anderson's brilliant "Just Desert." So creepy! I loved this one! I won't say much for fear of spoiling it, but let me just say this is the one story I could totally see giving kids nightmares.
And finally, there's Stephen King's "The House on Maple Street." I expected this one to be very good and I was not disappointed. This was the one story that created real tension and had me on the edge of my seat, drowning out all the distractions around me. Obviously, it has more of an adult vibe, even though it's about kids. But kids should relate to it and enjoy it, assuming they don't find the family dynamics too upsetting. I admit that while I have enjoyed several movies based on King's books, I haven't actually read any of his work before because I think most of it would be too disturbing for me. However, I enjoy his writing style and will have to check out some of his less scary stuff.
While I didn't think this was a stellar collection overall, it has enough going for it to be worth your time.
Side note: I found it in my library's YA collection, but after reading it, I think it would fit more comfortably in our Tween section for grades 5-8.
July 6, 2011
Like all story collections, some pieces are fabulous and others instantly forgettable. What is particularly interesting is to see how these well-known authors interpret an image and single line. This collection will hopefully continue to prompt readers to create their own interpretations.
November 27, 2011
The concept of this book is in direct opposition to the concept of the original. Also, the stories suck.
June 10, 2020
When my soon-to-be fiancee graduated from college, she became a second grade teacher. I purchased a copy of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and inscribed a note inside, hoping the picture book might inspire many creative stories among her students. The Burdick book was written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, consisting of 14 unrelated drawings with an accompanying title and one or two sentences pulled from the storyline.
In "Oscar and Alphonse" for example, a smartly dressed young girl holds two caterpillars in her hand. She looks down at them as she stands in front of a forest. "She knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars softly wiggled in her hand, spelling out 'goodbye.'"
Each picture and brief text offered perfect kindling to ignite a story in the mind of a young writer. You can see them all here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrCTS...
The explanation for the book was as curious as the pictures; something about a man named Burdick dropping off the pictures to a publisher with a promise to return. Mysteriously, Burdick never did come back. Van Allsburg cast his explanation to sound authentic, which is all part of the magic. The whole premise is made up, plausible though it appears. It added to the mystery of the pictures themselves.
Decades later, Burdick's stories surfaced, this time accompanied by the work of 14 famous writers in the book I'm reviewing here: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales. I checked it out from the library. The 14 authors include horror writer Stephen King, picture book writer Jules Feiffer (I adored his book,"Bark, George") and Lois Lowry, most famous perhaps for "The Giver." Each writer offered their own story to match one of Van Allsburg's original drawings, title and excerpt.
A lot has changed since the first book was published in 1984. Email, the internet, CDs, streamed music, e-readers. Heck, I even changed careers a few times and most recently have ended up as a high school teacher. My new role prompted the loan from the library--would my 11th graders be willing to view a picture and write a story? Would they be more willing if they knew Stephen King had done it, or Gregory Maguire (author of "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West") or Louis Sachar (who wrote the award-winning "Holes")?
For example, I was curious to see WHERE the authors placed the excerpt in their story. I probably would have begun with the teaser, but most of these authors either embedded it midway or placed the line at the end. Interestingly, none started their stories with the lines.
That would all be part of my potential classroom discussion: where will you place the quote? What is the arc in your story? And what kind of story will you tell? Scary, tender, sad?
The Chronicles are not written for young children. Each short story feels like an episode torn from the Twilight Zone. For this reason, they might be more appreciated by 11th grade students than elementary-aged kids. That was a surprising gift, given my audience in the fall. Furthermore, this collection explores a spectrum of emotions, from revenge tale (The House on Maple Street) to women's liberation (The Seven Chairs). I liked that a lot. Personally, I most enjoyed Jon Scieszka's "Under the Rug" and Linda Sue Parks' "The Harp." But I frankly enjoyed the whole book, especially as a collection.
In this volume, it was only appropriate to give the privilege of writing the introduction to Lemony Snicket, himself a phony author of The Cumbersome Collection. The inside joke continues.
But the last lines of his introduction could not be more true:
"As you reread the stories, stare at the images, and ponder the mysteries of Harris Burdick, you will find yourself in a mystery that joins so many authors and readers together in breathless wonder."
Pens out!
Here's a silly but short book trailer featuring some of the authors and Snicket himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3kpY...
In "Oscar and Alphonse" for example, a smartly dressed young girl holds two caterpillars in her hand. She looks down at them as she stands in front of a forest. "She knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars softly wiggled in her hand, spelling out 'goodbye.'"
Each picture and brief text offered perfect kindling to ignite a story in the mind of a young writer. You can see them all here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrCTS...
The explanation for the book was as curious as the pictures; something about a man named Burdick dropping off the pictures to a publisher with a promise to return. Mysteriously, Burdick never did come back. Van Allsburg cast his explanation to sound authentic, which is all part of the magic. The whole premise is made up, plausible though it appears. It added to the mystery of the pictures themselves.
Decades later, Burdick's stories surfaced, this time accompanied by the work of 14 famous writers in the book I'm reviewing here: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales. I checked it out from the library. The 14 authors include horror writer Stephen King, picture book writer Jules Feiffer (I adored his book,"Bark, George") and Lois Lowry, most famous perhaps for "The Giver." Each writer offered their own story to match one of Van Allsburg's original drawings, title and excerpt.
A lot has changed since the first book was published in 1984. Email, the internet, CDs, streamed music, e-readers. Heck, I even changed careers a few times and most recently have ended up as a high school teacher. My new role prompted the loan from the library--would my 11th graders be willing to view a picture and write a story? Would they be more willing if they knew Stephen King had done it, or Gregory Maguire (author of "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West") or Louis Sachar (who wrote the award-winning "Holes")?
For example, I was curious to see WHERE the authors placed the excerpt in their story. I probably would have begun with the teaser, but most of these authors either embedded it midway or placed the line at the end. Interestingly, none started their stories with the lines.
That would all be part of my potential classroom discussion: where will you place the quote? What is the arc in your story? And what kind of story will you tell? Scary, tender, sad?
The Chronicles are not written for young children. Each short story feels like an episode torn from the Twilight Zone. For this reason, they might be more appreciated by 11th grade students than elementary-aged kids. That was a surprising gift, given my audience in the fall. Furthermore, this collection explores a spectrum of emotions, from revenge tale (The House on Maple Street) to women's liberation (The Seven Chairs). I liked that a lot. Personally, I most enjoyed Jon Scieszka's "Under the Rug" and Linda Sue Parks' "The Harp." But I frankly enjoyed the whole book, especially as a collection.
In this volume, it was only appropriate to give the privilege of writing the introduction to Lemony Snicket, himself a phony author of The Cumbersome Collection. The inside joke continues.
But the last lines of his introduction could not be more true:
"As you reread the stories, stare at the images, and ponder the mysteries of Harris Burdick, you will find yourself in a mystery that joins so many authors and readers together in breathless wonder."
Pens out!
Here's a silly but short book trailer featuring some of the authors and Snicket himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3kpY...
May 2, 2022
I need to start off by saying that I read an exquisite, hard back, over sized copy of this book. It's cloth bound, double foil stamped, and simply a gorgeous addition to my library!
Introduction by Lemony Snicket - ***** What can you say about Snicket's irreverent and charming writing style? If you don't like the Series of Unfortunate Event series, don't read this introduction.
Archie Smith, Boy Wonder by Tabitha King - ***** Tabby does not get the attention she deserves. This little story isn't great because of what happens, but because of the way she tells us. She uses words like a master, and no one should be surprised by this.
Under the Rug by Jon Scieszka - ***** Scieszka got the scariest illustration, in my opinion, and made the most of it. It was incredibly suspenseful to be so short.
A Strange Day in July by Sherman Alexie - ***** Kids are liars. Alexie takes that fundamental truth and runs with it! The fact that his illustration was just a beautiful play of light on the water speaks volumes about his imagination!
Missing in Venice by Gregory Maguire - ** I've never cared for Maguire's style and this was no exception. I know he has skill, so I couldn't give it one star, but it's not skill that appeals to me.
Another Place, Another Time by Cory Doctorow - This was a miniscule example of perfect fantasy for children, comparable to Tolkien or Lewis, or Grossman's more modern, The Silver Arrow.
Uninvited Guests by Jules Feiffer - *** This was hard to rate because I thought the premise, and especially the ending, was clever, I didn't care much for the style in which it was written.
The Harp by Linda Sue Park - *** This reminded me of fairy tales I read as a child, or a watered down version of a Harry Potter story. It was sweet and satisfying, but nothing extraordinary.
Mr. Linden's Library by Walter Dean Myers - **** I'm a sucker for a story about a library. A magical library? Even better!
The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry - *** Clever, and even fun, but nothing amazing.
The Third-Floor Bedroom by Kate DiMillo - ***** A less scary version of The Yellow Wallpaper. Epistolary, which is one of my very favorite formats!
Just Desert by M.T. Anderson - ***** Very Creepshow / Twilight Zone / Outer Limits fare. I love this stuff!
Captain Tory by Louis Sachar - ***** Beautiful story, beautifully paced and told.
Oscar and Alphonse by Chris Van Allsburg - ***** I'm also a sucker for a smart little girl told at a time when little girls were meant to be pretty, not smart. And caterpillars. I'm a huge fan of caterpillars!
The House on Maple Street by Stephen King - ***** All of the stars. This has always been one of my favorite short stories, and the audio, read by Tabby, is sublime. King really knows how to write children, and this is a great example of that.
All in all I really enjoyed these tales. I had read some in other places, most often, being aware they were inspired by these illustrations, but I was surprised by a few. Short story collections are magical all on their own, but when you add these haunting illustrations, it's easy to see why and how author's are inspired.
Introduction by Lemony Snicket - ***** What can you say about Snicket's irreverent and charming writing style? If you don't like the Series of Unfortunate Event series, don't read this introduction.
Archie Smith, Boy Wonder by Tabitha King - ***** Tabby does not get the attention she deserves. This little story isn't great because of what happens, but because of the way she tells us. She uses words like a master, and no one should be surprised by this.
Under the Rug by Jon Scieszka - ***** Scieszka got the scariest illustration, in my opinion, and made the most of it. It was incredibly suspenseful to be so short.
A Strange Day in July by Sherman Alexie - ***** Kids are liars. Alexie takes that fundamental truth and runs with it! The fact that his illustration was just a beautiful play of light on the water speaks volumes about his imagination!
Missing in Venice by Gregory Maguire - ** I've never cared for Maguire's style and this was no exception. I know he has skill, so I couldn't give it one star, but it's not skill that appeals to me.
Another Place, Another Time by Cory Doctorow - This was a miniscule example of perfect fantasy for children, comparable to Tolkien or Lewis, or Grossman's more modern, The Silver Arrow.
Uninvited Guests by Jules Feiffer - *** This was hard to rate because I thought the premise, and especially the ending, was clever, I didn't care much for the style in which it was written.
The Harp by Linda Sue Park - *** This reminded me of fairy tales I read as a child, or a watered down version of a Harry Potter story. It was sweet and satisfying, but nothing extraordinary.
Mr. Linden's Library by Walter Dean Myers - **** I'm a sucker for a story about a library. A magical library? Even better!
The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry - *** Clever, and even fun, but nothing amazing.
The Third-Floor Bedroom by Kate DiMillo - ***** A less scary version of The Yellow Wallpaper. Epistolary, which is one of my very favorite formats!
Just Desert by M.T. Anderson - ***** Very Creepshow / Twilight Zone / Outer Limits fare. I love this stuff!
Captain Tory by Louis Sachar - ***** Beautiful story, beautifully paced and told.
Oscar and Alphonse by Chris Van Allsburg - ***** I'm also a sucker for a smart little girl told at a time when little girls were meant to be pretty, not smart. And caterpillars. I'm a huge fan of caterpillars!
The House on Maple Street by Stephen King - ***** All of the stars. This has always been one of my favorite short stories, and the audio, read by Tabby, is sublime. King really knows how to write children, and this is a great example of that.
All in all I really enjoyed these tales. I had read some in other places, most often, being aware they were inspired by these illustrations, but I was surprised by a few. Short story collections are magical all on their own, but when you add these haunting illustrations, it's easy to see why and how author's are inspired.
February 5, 2022
I read most of this while at work bc our first case was cancelled so I was waiting around for the second case, only to find out that there was no room for me. So I came to work just to read this today.
Finally decided to read the books I’ve been “saving” idk why I do this but no longer !!
Literally all of my faves in one book, so many literary legends I was beyond excited. A Strange Day in July by Sherman Alexie is so good !! prob my fave, followed by The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry. Tbh all of these are great short stories but I think it’s very hard for this format to have the same impact on me.
The edition I read didn’t have The House on Maple Street. Will update this review if I ever read it.
The whole myth of Harris Burdick is kinda cool. This was my first time hearing about it. Love the concept of this collection. It was also cool that there were some motifs that popped up across the stories (the sextant, Maple Street, dead parents).
Finally decided to read the books I’ve been “saving” idk why I do this but no longer !!
Literally all of my faves in one book, so many literary legends I was beyond excited. A Strange Day in July by Sherman Alexie is so good !! prob my fave, followed by The Seven Chairs by Lois Lowry. Tbh all of these are great short stories but I think it’s very hard for this format to have the same impact on me.
The edition I read didn’t have The House on Maple Street. Will update this review if I ever read it.
The whole myth of Harris Burdick is kinda cool. This was my first time hearing about it. Love the concept of this collection. It was also cool that there were some motifs that popped up across the stories (the sextant, Maple Street, dead parents).
February 26, 2019
This is one of the strangest books I have ever read, and I love it. Its ambiguous tone and direction, open ended statements, and beautiful art combine to form a very, very odd book. As a whole, each page offers its own statement and paired picture, both of which are mysterious, but nonetheless graspable and expandable. For example, there is an image of a boy and his dog, deep in a forest, looking down a modest river at what seems to be a golden harp of sorts. The image itself and the text are understandable, they aren't riddles. But the situation they serve to our eyes and minds welcomes us to expand its mysterious nature, which is what makes this book fantastic. Furthermore, whether the reader be a child or an adult, there can be so many inferences and different lore's based off of a single image and statement. My critique of this book would be that there isn't more of these images and statements. The book seems short and, since there is no plot (supposedly), additional content would have added to the greatness of this book. All in all, a very quality book that I hope one day I will get to read to my own children one day.
January 19, 2023
I've been obsessed with Lemony Snicket lately, so when I saw that he wrote the forward for this collection, I signed up immediately. Stephen AND Tabitha King in the same collection?? In my opinion, the M.T. Anderson story "Just Desert" was the best, and while some were more successful than others, each tale provided something enjoyable. Not to mention the indescribably odd artwork (by the same author responsible for Jumanji and The Polar Express.) I am still aching for additional Snicket works, however -- particularly something Unfortunate!
(What the hell?? I just noticed that Goodreads is telling me I read this book previously in 2016? I am losing it.)
(What the hell?? I just noticed that Goodreads is telling me I read this book previously in 2016? I am losing it.)
October 16, 2025
Delightful, spooky, and mysterious! My favorite stories here are:
- The Third-Floor Bedroom - by Kate DiCamillo (no surprise as I love everything she writes <3)
- The Seven Chairs - by Lois Lowry
- The House on Maple Street - by Stephen King
- Oscar and Alphonse - by Chris Van Allsburg
- The Harp - by Linda Sue Park
- Archie Smith, Boy Wonder - by Tabitha King
- Another Place, Another Time - by Cory Doctorow
Now I want to write my own stories from these pictures, making it a true font of inspiration.
- The Third-Floor Bedroom - by Kate DiCamillo (no surprise as I love everything she writes <3)
- The Seven Chairs - by Lois Lowry
- The House on Maple Street - by Stephen King
- Oscar and Alphonse - by Chris Van Allsburg
- The Harp - by Linda Sue Park
- Archie Smith, Boy Wonder - by Tabitha King
- Another Place, Another Time - by Cory Doctorow
Now I want to write my own stories from these pictures, making it a true font of inspiration.
November 8, 2024
I was first introduced to Harris Burdick in 7th grade, when, like many other children, I wrote a story to go with one of the mysterious pictures. So when I discovered this book, I was really excited to see what various authors had done with the stories. I enjoyed the various takes, and I felt like most of the stories really fit the mysterious mood of the illustrations.
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