(listen to the podcast review)

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
By Chris Van Allsburg

Chris Van Allsburg has gained substantial fame in the past few years as books of his -- such as Jumanji, Zathura and the Polar Express -- have been made into major motion pictures. But one book of Van Allsburg that I turn to again and again as a teacher of young writers is one of his eerie and mysterious creations: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.
Published more than 20 years ago, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a very untraditional picture book. In fact, it is more of a collection of odd black and white illustrations that arrives in your hands with an engaging back story of a talented writer and artist, Harris Burdick, who disappeared from the face of the Earth just as he was on the brink of publication with a major company. Burdick's stories have vanished along with him, too, but as luck would have it -- Van Allsburg tells us in a note to the reader  -- Burdick has left behind a series of illustrations with titles and captions for each missing story.
In the porfolio edition that I own, Van Allsburg explains these circumstances to the reader and goes on to note that he has received boxes of stories over the years that have been sent to him by children writing what they imagine the stories to be after viewing the Burdick illustrations.
And who could resist such illustrations as "The Third Floor Bedroom," which shows a dove peeling itself off of the room's wallpaper just a few feet from an open window. Next to it is the empty space of another dove that has already come to life and flown away. Or consider "The Seven Chairs," in which a nun is seen hovering in a magical chair high into the arches of a cathedral. The caption? "The fifth one ended up in France." Doesn't it make you wonder about the other six chairs?
Or perhaps the illustration that will grip your imagination is the one entitled "Mr. Linden's Library." In it, you can see a young girl, apparently lying lifeless on a bed, with a book open and a strange plant growing out of the spine. The caption reads: "He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late."
Even renown author Stephen King used one of the Harris Burdick drawings to inspire a short story entitled, "The House on Maple Street." That title may sound harmless enough, but the illustration in the Van Allsburg book is that of a house that is clearly blasting off from the ground with rocket engines and thrusters. The caption? "It was a perfect lift-off."
Van Allsburg is the master of giving the reader just enough information to fire the imagination and even the most reluctant writers and readers would be hard-pressed not to find some kernal of creativity in these drawings, titles and captions. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is sure creep you out just a bit, but in the world of Chris Van Allsburg, that is perfectly acceptable.