House 43 Digest Online

“Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wender’s office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He’d brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Wenders liked his work.

Peter Wenders was fascinated by the drawings. He told Burdick he would like to read the stories that went with them as soon as possible. The artist agreed to bring the stories the next morning. He left the fourteen drawings with Wenders. But he did not return the next day. Or the day after that. Harris Burdick was never heard from again.” – “Introduction,” The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

When the children heard this introduction, they were spellbound and could not wait to look through the evocative drawings in this book, fifteen in all. Over the next few weeks, each House 43 child will pick one illustration and caption, which will provide the inspiration for an original writing piece. They have begun this process and are in the first stages of drafting.

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a book that is used as part of the writing curriculum and as part of our continued curricular connection with our friends at the Lusher School. When Tracy was in New Orleans, she lead a Writer’s Workshop share and heard the interesting, funny and mysterious stories created by the children in the class. Inspired by the creativity and looking for another joint writing project, Tracy and Lisa (Lusher School 3rd grade teacher) decided that this project would be yet another fantastic writing exchange. Our last writing exchange was a collection of “I Am From” poems. Please read the “I Am From” poems written by House 43 students posted on this blog.