For the love of books: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
So I mentioned my love of a good picture book in my previous ‘For the love of books’ post, and I have decided to take a look at another brilliant picture book. It is mysterious and intriguing and whenever looking at the images it just feels like something magical or unexpected may happen, especially when showing them in the classroom. ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’ is written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, who has created a number of fantastic picture books that I have used throughout my teaching career. It’s fantastically brilliant in so many ways and here’s why:
Front cover - The Chronicles of Harris Burdick
Firstly, the images are stunning. Fourteen individual illustrations left with a man named Peter Wenders, who previously worked for a publishing company. Fourteen intriguing pictures which were left with no explanation other than the fact that each belonged to a different story. Each image on its own would be enough to develop children’s imagination and creativity, and in the classroom I have used them exactly in that way. On their own, standalone images, with the children developing their own stories and explanations as to what could be happening in the image that is presented in front of them.
They are beautifully crafted so that you can’t help but use interesting vocabulary to describe what is going on in the scene. They are also great for developing the children’s ability to consider the before and after. This is great for encouraging further discussion in the classroom and the children really are intrigued when you show them a picture of a dark-haired lady who is about to cut into a large glowing pumpkin with a razor sharp knife. Great for flashbacks and flash forwards and encouraging children to think about the structure of their own narrative writing. Not only that, but is the image the start of the story? Did something happen before? What will come next? Placing this main idea from the image within their own timeline of events – it cannot be stated how significant this ability is in order for children to develop their own creative force. The fact that the images are in monochrome just adds to the intriguing nature of the illustrations. There is nothing simple about them and so many minor, seemingly insignificant details to spot that just might become crucial to our own version of the story surrounding it.
Secondly, the introduction:
Image of introduction - from Chronicles of Harris Burdick
This wonderful opening to the fourteen image saga sets the scene beautifully for all sorts of writing activities. How would you respond if you received these illustrations? What would you do with them? How could you use them? Not only answering these questions, but how would you have introduced the fourteen pictures if you were writing the introduction to this book? Short pieces of writing that give children the opportunity to express their own opinions about what they have read or seen. Furthermore, what is the story behind the images as a whole? And who really was Harris Burdick? The reason I love these ideas so much is that they are completely open ended. As with so many of the best writing opportunities, there is no right or wrong answer, only the promise that the writer can express themselves and their own view freely and safely in the knowledge that they can only be right. So many children often fear that their ideas aren’t good enough or that what they have written is wrong. Let’s take that fear away with opportunities like this using books just like this one.
Finally, its almost like a book of one liners (not in the form of jokes but in the form of mysteries). Accompanying each illustration is simply a title with one additional line of text below. One of my favourites is titled ‘The Seven Chairs’ and the accompanying line, “The fifth one ended up in France.” I have so many questions before even looking at the image. Why were there seven? Why are you only telling me about the fifth one? What happened to the first four? Have numbers six and seven left yet? Then when you observe the image of what appears to be a nun sat in a floating chair I need to know more. Why is it floating? Why a nun? Where has it come from? Where is it going?
The Seven Chairs - from The Chronicles of Harris Burdick
I could go on. But you didn’t come here to read about my madness over the fifth chair and what happened to the other six!
In all seriousness though, doing this with the children to generate questions, drama, discussion. Hot seating of the nun floating in the chair. Debating what should be done with the chair. Discussing how the chair could be floating and how it came to be where it is. Not to mention the fact that there are seven of these chairs around the world. It might not be one story but seven intertwined tales of magic and adventure. I have used several of these images alongside their ‘one-liners’ within the classroom and I was never disappointed with how the children I was teaching approached the mystery of them in their own writing, and this is mostly just from an individual image that has been designed expertly to evoke intrigue and possibility.
I am easily taken in by a fantastic picture book, and Chris Van Allsburg’s ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’ is definitely well worth a look if you haven’t heard of it. In fact all of his books are!
Feel free to comment on other interesting ways you may have used this book in teaching. It’s always good to share great ideas!