Abundant Life: The Mysteries of Harris Budick

The Mysteries of Harris Budick by Chris Van Allsburg is the inspiration behind the next few of my posts.

The following is a brief summary from his introduction

(The links will lead you to the entire intro and also to wikepedia)

In 1984, I wrote the following as an introduction to The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named Peter Wenders. Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wenders's office, who once worked for a children's book publisher, choosing the stories and pictures that would be turned into books, 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.

Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Burdick was and what had happened to him, but he discovered nothing. To this day Harris Burdick remains a complete mystery.
His disappearance is not the only mystery left behind. What were the stories that went with these drawings?

Chris Van Allsburg

This year the fourth graders, whom I worked with, had the assignment to pick a picture and write a story about it. The story had to be titled the title of the photo and include the photo's caption somewhere in the story. I was inspired by one many, but after much thought I chose one and wrote a story. So, with that said, here is the photo that I chose.

Mr. Linden's Library

"He had warned her about the book, but now it was too late"