Harris Burdick

• Chris Van Allsburg came across the pictures of Harris Burdick through a friend, Peter Wenders.

• Apparently, Burdick presented the pictures with their titles and captions to Wenders in hopes that Wenders would be interested in purchasing the stories that accompanied the illustrations.

• Wenders was intrigued by the pictures and asked Burdick to submit the corresponding stories the next day.

• However, Wenders never heard from Harris Burdick again, so the "true" stories behind the pictures were never revealed.

• Students have been asked to consider one of the images, its title and its caption and then to write a possible narrative story that tells what happened before and after the picture was taken.

• Make sure you include Harris Burdicks sentence in your story.

THE SEVEN CHAIRSThe fifth one ended up in France.One day in 1559, a witch named Matilda was making magical chairs. She made seven chairs. Seven chairs to represent her seven husbands who had all passed away. Anyone who sat in the chairs would get a magical power. The chairs made you able to fly but you had to stay on the chair. Matilda passed them down to her seven sisters. They loved them. However they had no clue that they were magical, and they had no clue that their sister was a witch. Her sisters passed them on from generation to generation. Finally one day in August 1943, seven different people had the chairs. They were all nuns. They had never sat or even touched the chairs. They were carefully put in a big room and then placed in a little glass box to make sure that nobody could touch them. One of the nuns didn’t like the rule that nobody could touch or even sit on the chairs so she sat on one. Hers was the one that could fly, the fifth one. She was then put in a trance. All the other nuns did the exact same. They all sat on their chairs. They all started to fly. The first one went all the way to Germany, the second all the way to Jamaica, the third one ended up in London, the fourth in Australia, the fifth one ended up in France, the sixth one in Florida and the seventh one in Egypt. All the nuns were horrified when they got up from the chairs. The nuns were never seen again. The chairs are still in the same spot where the nuns sat up from the chairs. The End

Example

THE HOUSE ON MAPLE STREETIt was a perfect lift-off.

Archie Smith, Boy WonderA tiny voice asked, "Is he the one?"

JUST DESERTShe lowered the knife and it grew even brighter.

OSCAR AND ALPHONSEShe knew it was time to send them back.The caterpillars softly wiggled in her hand,spelling out "goodbye".

UNINVITED GUESTSHis heart was pounding.

He was sure he had seen the doorknob turn.

UNDER THE RUGTwo weeks passed and it happened again.

MR. LINDEN'S LIBRARYHe had warned her about the book.

Now it was too late.

Archie Smith, Boy Wonder

A tiny voice asked, "Is he the one?"

A STRANGE DAY IN JULYHe threw with all his might, but the

third stone came skipping back

THE THIRD-FLOOR BEDROOMIt all began when someone left

the window open.