Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 08/01/2011 Gr 5–9—Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Houghton, 1984) has taken on a life of its own in the years since its original publication. The mysterious pictures, accompanied only by a title and a caption, have captivated many young readers to create their own stories. Chronicles presents stories to go with the images by a who's who of writers for children and young adults-and adults if you count Stephen King. His "The House on Maple Street" is actually one of the strongest selections, reprinted here from one of his short story collections in 1993. In this tale, children maneuver their cruel stepfather into the titular house just prior to the perfect lift off. It's fully realized with deftly drawn characters. Also memorable is Lois Lowry's "The Seven Chairs," about a nun who learns that she can "rise," along with seven special chairs. M. T. Anderson's "Just Desert" (the picture with the glowing pumpkin) is an especially brilliant take about a boy who just may be the only person on Earth with everything being created just for him. Van Allsburg's "Oscar and Alphonse" has an appropriately heartbreaking ending. The rest of the collection is hit or miss. Cory Doctorow's "Another Place, Another Time" is among the most disappointing, as he takes what is arguably the most iconic image in the book and turns it into an unintelligible mumbo jumbo of time-travel jargon. Chronicles turns out to be a mixed bag, but at the same time it is a potent reminder of the brilliance of Van Allsburg's original creation.—Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 09/01/2011 Now a classic picture book, Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (1984) features 14 enigmatic charcoal drawings, each with a title and a caption. Readers are told that a mysterious Harris Burdick dropped off the images at a publisher and promised to return with the accompanying stories, but he never appeared. In this follow-up volume, 14 noted authors for young people, including M. T. Anderson and Linda Sue Park, fill in the missing stories. Each entry inspired by a drawing includes Van Allsburg’s original art and caption. Although the stories are distinct—by turns funny, sinister, and touching—they have much in common, sharing an arch tone, curious metaphysics, and some familiar folk-tale tropes (siblings in peril, frog transmogrification, gingerbread, etc.), and the authors’ commitment to the original conceit gives the volume additional cohesion. No mysteries are solved here. Indeed, the reader is left with even more questions than before. This collection promises to inspire many more children to revisit Van Allsburg’s striking scenes and imagine for themselves just what is really going on. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2011 For twenty-five years, Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (BCCB 9/84) has been sparking the imaginations of young writers who find themselves inspired by the fourteen evocative images and their accompanying captions. Now fourteen award-winning authors have taken up the challenge to write their own stories inspired by the pictures. After a witty introduction by Lemony Snicket, literary luminaries such as Stephen King, Sherman Alexie, Kate DiCamillo, and Walter Dean Myers ply their trade with dexterity and skill. Interestingly, their stories never seem to attempt any sort of definitive take on their chosen illustrations-perhaps it is the richness of the illustrations themselves that leave plenty of room for continued speculation beyond these particular, idiosyncratic versions of what the picture might be about. Tabitha King, for instance, uses the clue of a baseball bat perched against an open window to find the thread for her tale but ignores the sailboat on the wall. Cory Doctorow pursues his own thematic ends in suggesting multiple universes that aren’t pictured in the illustration of a handcart crossing a body of water with four children under sail; similarly, Jules Feiffer considers the aging and ultimate death of a children’s book author through the inciting picture of a door in a basement. Overall, the authors use the pictures and their captions as mere jumping-off places for richly imagined stories peopled with intriguing characters moving through thoughtful plot arcs. Like the pictures themselves, then, this set of stories will be more inspirational than definitive, starting more conversations and opening more possibilities than they close. Well done, all. KC - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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