More than 25 years ago, Chris Van Allsburg published the original The Mysteries of Harris Burdick--a set of 14 drawings connected only by their elusive quality and a caption that suggests that each is part of a larger story.
Lemony Snicket, in his introduction to this collection, ups the ante. He suggests that Burdick wrote and distributed these stories among the 14 contributors here. The tales range in tone from funny to creepy to poignant and often blend these qualities. The elegantly designed volume presents each sepia-toned image, and the story follows. Stephen King's "The House on Maple Street" (from his 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes) appears alongside its inspiration: a house literally blasting off, using its manicured suburban yard as its launchpad.
Jon Scieszka's "Under the Rug" is the first of three stories that reveal how much we use laughter as a release from fear and anxiety. Other stories deliver justice through comeuppance, such as "A Strange Day in July" by Sherman Alexie, in which terrible twins invent a triplet that strikes terror in the hearts of their parents, classmates, teacher--and eventually its siblings. Many of the mysteries here begin with an unrecoverable loss. M.T. Anderson's "Just Desert" will rock your world as surely as he does Alex Lee's on the eve of his 10th birthday.
The stories feel complete, yet unfinished, as if the characters and situations live on without us to witness their continuation. They ask us to consider the mystery, the sense of possibility, as perhaps more alluring than what we know. --Jennifer M. Brown, children’s editor, Shelf Awareness
For more on The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, check out our Maximum Shelf.