The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
By Chris Van Allsburg
The Story
An author-illustrator named Harris Burdick vanishes, leaving behind fourteen mysterious drawings with only a title and a single line of text each — and no story to explain them.
Why It's Special
For the kid who invents backstories for strangers on the street or asks 'but what happens next' after every book, this hands them fourteen unfinished mysteries and says: you decide.
- Big idea: A picture and a sentence are just a doorway — what's on the other side belongs to whoever's imagining it.
- Vibes: eerie, wondering, open-ended, quietly unsettling in the best way
Perfect For Kids Who
- love to make up their own stories
- are working on using imagination instead of waiting to be told
- enjoy mysteries without tidy answers
- respond well to detailed, atmospheric artwork they can study
Ask Your Little Reader
- Imagination: Looking at the picture of the nun in a floating chair, what do you think happened to the other six chairs?
- Story & problem-solving: If you had to write the story behind one of these pictures, which one would you pick first, and why?
- Real-life connection: Have you ever seen something strange and made up your own explanation for it?
- Feelings & empathy: How do you think it would feel to disappear and leave only pictures behind, the way Harris Burdick did?
- Imagination: What do you think really happened to Harris Burdick?
