The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales

I have owned The Mysteries of Harris Burdick -- the portfolio of illustrations and captions that inspired the short stories in this collection -- for a long time, and I have always enjoyed looking at them and letting them spark my imagination. It is inevitable that finally reading stories based on these captivating drawings would be something of a letdown, even when the stories are written by very good authors. It's like opening the closet door to reveal the monster at the end of the book; nothing quite measures up to what already lives in one's imagination.

So I found many of these stories to be a bit forced or contrived, and unsure of their audience -- neither really appropriate for children or adults. I suppose that's what comes of show more starting from a picture and matching the story to that, rather than letting the story flow naturally and inspire the picture. There were a couple of exceptions, and they stood out because they broke the rules and gave me something unexpected. Those were the stories by Jon Sciezka and M.T. Anderson; the first was dark and humorous, the second had a delicious twist. As for the others, they were fine, but there was a small part of me that thought I could do better. show less

In The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, a collection of authors take on the pictures and captions from Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and write their own stories for each. Obviously, the most fun is in kids creating their own stories, but this collection is a fun way for authors to give us theirs. The collection is, as collections often are, a little uneven, with some authors capturing the picture they've written on, while others totally miss the mark. Jon Scieszka's quick story, "Under the Rug," about sweeping problems under the rug and Louis Sachar's "Captain Tory," about the benevolent ghost of a sea captain who "haunts" a doughnut shop and a hardware store are my favorites of the lot. Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, and show more Jules Feiffer also do a remarkable job of capturing the essence of "their" illustrations. Gregory Maguire's bizarre tale missed the mark for me, and, I'm sad to say, Stephen King's selection disappointed me a bit. All in all, though, I would recommend the book. It's fun to see these classic illustrations fleshed out a bit, and, of course, Van Allsburg's stunning illustrations are always worth seeing. show less

"Although she was only five, and the youngest of the Bradbury children, Melissa had very sharp eyes, and it wasn't surprising that she was the first to discover that something strange had happened to the house on Maple Street while the Bradbury family was summering in England."

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg actually is a collection of short stories, based on Van Allsburg's drawings in his original book, by popular authors such as Tabitha King, Jon Scieszka, Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo, Louis Sachar and Stephen King. The original drawings in Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick supposedly were left by the title character with the show more publisher to see whether they could be published with the accompanying stories - but he never returned with the stories. So here they are, more than two decades after the original publication.

The drawings are beautiful and eerie, with small details that make one wonder - why is the nun hovering in a chair in that church? Why are vines growing out of that book? Why is there a harp by that beautiful river? They each have titles and cryptic sayings beneath - "The Seven Chairs - The fifth one ended up in France"; "Mr. Linden's Library - He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late"; "The Harp - So it's true, he thought, it's really true." The authors use those titles and phrases as launching points for a wildly varied group of stories.

All are well-written, and of course some grabbed me more than others. I imagine it's one of those books where different readers will come away with different favorites, because there isn't a bad one in the bunch. I found myself enjoying the ones in the latter part of the book the most. Lois Lowry's tale of the chair-flying nun is amusing and well-told. In Stephen King's story excerpted at the beginning of this, he makes sly references to Ray Bradbury and The Monsters of Maple Street, which I believe is a Bradbury story made famous on Twilight Zone, featuring red scare type paranoia and hysteria as the power goes out on Maple Street. The King story turns that inside out - the monster is going unperceived except by the children he's terrorizing. M.T. Anderson masterfully walks us through a glowing pumpkin tale that leaves the boy who wanders out of his neighborhood and the reader questioning what they can believe and what is really beyond their own neighborhood.

It's a fun book, and a pleasure to see how these well-known authors rise to the challenge. show less

Who is Harris Burdick? In his intro, Lemony Snicket tells us that Burdick dropped off fourteen beautiful illustrations, each with their own title and caption, to a stranger, promising he’d return with more illustrations and stories to match. But he never returned, and so fourteen writers have done their best to put a story behind each picture (or perhaps, as Snicket theorizes, these fourteen were contacted by Burdick in secret and given the stories to match, or had them hidden in their homes for safe-keeping).

This book was recommended to me by my friend Mel, but even if she hadn’t pointed it out, the list of authors would have drawn me in. We’ve got: Tabitha King, Jon Scieszka, Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Cory Doctorow, Jules show more Feiffer, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo, M.T. Anderson, Louis Sachar, Chris Van Allsburg, and Stephen King. They run the gamut from what happens when you sweep things under the rug, bottling a cruise ship, moving wallpaper, and a house turning into a rocket ship. They’ve all got a touch of fantasy, and some were quite unsettling, which I didn’t expect but loved.

I enjoyed all the stories, but my favorites were Under the Rug by Scieszka, The Third-Floor Bedroom by DiCamillo, Just Desert by Anderson and Captain Tory by Sachar. I’d recommend this for the young and old alike. show less

I have to admit, I read this book due to pure narcissism. Strolling in a bookstore, I noticed that the “main character” of this book shared my first name and the first three letters of my surname. Of course I had to read it, so I did a little research and requested both this book, and Chris VanAllsburg's original 1984 “Mysteries of Harris Burdick.” The premise is intriguing; an eccentric author, the eponymous “Harris Burdick,” drops off a pile of intriguingly beguiling artwork and story promises, only to disappear before making good on the tales that go along with the strange pictures. I did not grow up with this book, oddly enough, though, I am sure I would have loved it as a kid. I know I've seen some of the amazingly show more mysterious images presented in the picture book here and there over the years, but I did not know that they had all originated in the same picture book illustrated by the author of “Jumanji.” Flipping through “Mysteries” is quite enjoyable, even for an adult, and I would definitely pick this up for any hypothetical children.

As for “The Chronicles of Harris Burdick,” in which a stable of authors tell the stories inspired by VanAllsburg's, er, “Harris Burdick's” imagery, they definitely had quite a task ahead of them to do justice to the ideas the imaginations of the readers have already built up around the “Mysteries.” More or less, they succeed. The authors do a fair job bringing to life their visions of the background to the surreal pictures and the promising bits of text that accompany them, and a few even approach some of the wonder that the reader of the original has imagining the story behind the mysteries. The best take inspiration from the pictures and twist them into something unexpected, while still I particularly liked Allsburg's own story “Oscar and Alphonse,” Lois Lowry's “The Seven Chairs,” Louis Sachar's surreal “Captain Tory,” and Kate DiCamillo's bittersweet “The Third-Floor Bedroom.” My favorite was definitely M.T. Anderson' s “Just Desert,” based on the painting of the glowing pumpkin and taking such bizarre image to a though provoking and disturbing conclusion. All in all, the stories were fun, great to compare to your own interpretations, and a worthy rendition of the source. show less

Magical. That is how we must describe The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, a collection of stories based on fourteen whimsical images from Van Allsburg. Each picture, in the pointillistic realism he has perfected in classics like Jumanji and The Polar Express, provides a scenario and spring board for interpretation by some of our most celebrated authors for readers young and old. The tales, according to the introduction from Lemony Snicket, are the pieces of a book Burdick proposed but never delivered to his publisher. This metafiction creates a cozy, coherent universe for the strangeness that follows, allowing it to always feel both wonderfully odd and completely safe. And the stories, while perfectly appropriate for bedtime reading, will show more linger. show less

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 �ÛÒ 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‰Ûªs funny but creepy ‰ÛÏUnder the Rug‰Û, about a man who doesn‰Ûªt like show more his nagging Grandma much, ends like this; you think you know what‰Ûªs to come, but it ends right before the big moment, on such a note that you can imagine it going another way. Maybe the Grandma pulls a Hansel and Gretel and feeds the narrator to the Dust Demon, right? Jules Feiffer‰Ûªs melancholy and weird ‰ÛÏUninvited Guests‰Û, about a children‰Ûªs book illustrator who has no real people in his life anymore, does the same thing.

Others are even more enigmatic: they don‰Ûªt really end at all. Where they end (or when, I should say) feels right, but they don‰Ûªt provide closure in terms of plot. They spiral outward in multiple directions at once, like the handcar with the sail in Cory Doctorow‰Ûªs fantastic fantasy of multiple universes, ‰ÛÏAnother Place, Another Time‰Û or they stop abruptly at the most unsettling moment possible, as in Sherman Alexie‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏA Strange Day in July‰Û, about mean-spirited twins who invent a third sibling and find that she is just as mean-spirited as they are. Walter Dean Myers‰Ûª ‰ÛÏMr. Linden‰Ûªs Library‰Û 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‰Ûªs in, it will never truly end.) ‰ÛÏThe Third-Floor Bedroom‰Û by Kate DiCamillo also has a suggestive ending, but a less sad and more hopeful one; it reminded me a lot of ‰ÛÏThe Yellow Wallpaper‰Û at first, but took it in a less creepy direction so it ended up being about a woman‰Ûªs 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‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏJust Desert‰Û, which calls to mind another of his disturbing short stories I‰Ûªve read, ‰ÛÏWatch and Wake‰Û 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‰Ûªve 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‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏThe House on Maple Street‰Û and Linda Sue Park‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏThe Harp‰Û. 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‰Ûªt work for me (okay, five). They weren‰Ûªt poorly written and they will probably appeal to other readers. I thought Tabitha King‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏArchie Smith, Boy Wonder‰Û was oddly pointless, like it missed the point both of the illustration and of how to write a story for children. Gregory Maguire‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏMissing in Venice‰Û worked in the image of a big ship in a narrow canal in a way I didn‰Ûªt expect (I think because of how literal it was) but I was impatient with the narrator and the plot. Lois Lowry‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏThe Seven Chairs‰Û had too sentimental of an ending and not much plot. I like the way Chris Van Allsburg‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏOscar and Alphonse‰Û ended (another example of a story that felt like a beginning of a larger tale) but otherwise it didn‰Ûªt have enough detail to really draw me in; it didn‰Ûªt feel fleshed out enough for me to believe the caterpillars knew the answer to the ‰ÛÏmystery of life‰Û (maybe I missed the point on this one, though, because obviously I am taking that one too literally). And while ‰ÛÏCaptain Tory‰Û by Louis Sachar was a nice story about a beloved ghost discovering a new life, I don‰Ûªt think it did justice to the illustration. It‰Ûªs a very basic story for such a complicated picture.

Oh, and Lemony Snicket‰Ûªs 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. show less