1. THE MYSTERIES OF HARRIS BURDICK

2.  Written by Chris Van Allsburg  What else did he write??

3. ALSO WRITTEN BY ALLSBURG…  Jumanji  Zathura  Polar Express

4. HARRIS BURDICK  When Chris Van Allsburg was invited to the home of Peter Wenders, he discovered fourteen drawings that were, like pieces of a picture puzzle, clues to larger pictures. But the puzzles, the mysteries, presented by these drawings, are not what we are used to. They are not solved for us, as the final pages of a book or a film's last reel. The solutions to these mysteries lie in a place at once closer to hand, yet far more remote. They lie in our imagination. For those who have thought of themselves as unimaginative, this book will prove the opposite. Even the most reluctant imagination, when confronted by these drawings, will not be able to resist solving the mysteries of Harris Burdick.

5. Introduction: I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named Peter Wenders. Though Mr. Wenders is retired now, he once worked for a children’s book publisher, choosing the stories and pictures that would be turned into books. Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wenders’s office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He’d brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Mr. Wenders liked his work. Peter Wenders was fascinated by the drawings. He told Burdick he would like to read the stories that went with them as soon as possible. The artist agreed to bring the stories the next morning. He left the fourteen drawings with Wenders. But he did not return the next day. Or the day after that. Harris Burdick was never heard from again. Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Burdick was and what had happened to him, but he discovered nothing. To this day Harris Burdick remains a complete mystery. His disappearance is not the only mystery left behind. What were the stories that went with these drawings? There are some clues. Burdick had written a title and caption for each picture. When I told Peter Wenders how difficult it was to look at the drawings and their captions without imagining a story, he smiled and left the room. He returned with a dust-covered cardboard box. Inside were dozens of stories, all inspired by the Burdick drawings. They’d been written years ago by Wenders’s children and their friends. I spent the rest of my visit reading these stories. They were remarkable, some bizarre, some funny, some downright scary. In the hope that other children will be inspired by them, the Burdick drawings are reproduced here for the first time.

6. GALLERY WALK  Around the room are images from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick  In order to select the image that you would like to write on you first need to take a look at all of them!  Take your notebook with you as you walk around and jot down which images interest you the most. When you have looked at all of the options and selected the two that interest you the most return to your seat.

7. YOUR OWN MYSTERY  Now that you have selected an image to work from, brainstorm ideas for how you might create a short story around the mysterious image you selected.  The work you do today will serve as your pre-writing for a short story based on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

8. THE THIRD- FLOOR BEDROOM "IT ALL BEGAN WHEN SOMEONE LEFT THE WINDOW OPEN."

9. AN EXAMPLE…BY ME! David and Sarah were each tucked in by their mother and father thoroughly. They smiled their bedtime smiles, melted into exhausted grins by the day’s vigorous play. Then Mother and Father left their beloved children with a “Good night” and a Good Night Kiss, and descended the stairs. David’s room was across the hall from Sarah’s, yet David could still hear the wind whistling through the fluttering curtains like a stork flapping its wings. The breeze was a slow, constant flow of coolness, which was a wonderful climax to the active day the Jacobson children had. But before the children could bask any further in the cool breeze, a sound, much like a low grinding or humming, began to emit from the backyard. This sound floated in through Sarah’s window, along with masses of flailing, fluttering, flapping flocks of pure white doves. They all seemed to collide with the wall. At first, Sarah thought they would all fall to the ground, but gradually the wall seemed to absorb the birds, except for one solitary wing. Of course, the children awoke to discover they both had the exact same dream...

10.  Mysteries of Harris Burdick Video Mysteries of Harris Burdick Video An interpretation of the images

11. JOURNAL…