Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to re-discover a children's book that is thoughtful, provoking, and a must-read (look) for all of you.
My youngest son pulled a book out of his book shelf call The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, for me to read to him for his bedtime story. In the introduction, Chris Van Allsburg tells how he discovered drawings left for a man named Peter Wenders, a children's book publisher. A mysterious man by the name Harris Burdick had dropped drawings off to Mr. Wenders's office. He asked Mr. Wenders if he was interested in seeing the stories that went along with the pictures. Mr. Wenders was very excited. Harris Burdick promised to show up the next day with the stories, but never did. All that Mr. Burdick left with the pictures were titles of the story and captions that went along with each picture.
This got my juices flowing! Wouldn't it be thrilling if we could all come up with a story that went with a picture from the book? Currently, I am working with four high school students on this project (yes High School!!!) What I am finding is that each student has a wealth of wonderful ideas.
Parents, teachers, and students: Please check this book out! Let's see how many different stories we can post to this blog. My students and I will have ours posted in the next couple of weeks!
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I found a great website devoted to Chris Van Allsburg the author The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Jumanji, and The Polar Express.
Check out this great website!
http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/flash.html
THE HARP part 1
NICOLE
So it’s true he thought, it’s really true.
Max was staring at his reflection in the river. The streets of Venice were yet not awakened. When Max was looking at his reflection he saw his wavy brown hair and his brown eyes that were like leaves falling from a tree in autumn. Max was three feet and two inches of meat and bones. He decided to throw a rock in the river of Venice, Italy. He threw this tiny pebble in the river and then he heard this lullaby playing. Max started to drift away and as he was drifting away he lay down on the ground and he fell into a deep nap. Megan was Max’s sister and she was getting worried because max haven’t showed up for dinner. Megan went down to the river and woke Max up.
Megan had brown hair and big brown puppy dog eyes. Megan was five years old and she also heard the lullaby and almost drifted away but she told Max dinner was ready. When Max and Megan arrived at home, dinner was already on the table. There were baby carrots, a baked potato with sour cream and chives, the main thing was a honey barbeque roasted chicken cooked to perfection. After they finished there meal they had mint chocolate chip ice cream with hot fudge syrup, nuts, and topped it off with whip cream and cherries. Max was always indolent when it comes to cleaning. Megan was the opposite she was always kinetic and very jocular. Megan and Max had an acrimonious relationship. Tuesday afternoon at 12:00 they went down to the river and Max threw another rock in the river and heard the lullaby playing. They saw a path that led them into the woods and they followed that path. The path leads them to the river. They saw the vibration of the water and it looked
Like the water had a cell phone vibration underwater.
They saw the harp but they didn’t see anyone playing it. Max said, “Is there anyone there?” Megan got scared and started to cry. Max gave her comfort and she stopped crying. It was 8:00 at night and they decided to head back to their house. Max and Megan told their mom Amy and their dad Jeff. Amy was always trying to be humorous but always failed and Jeff their dad is a story writer and can be humorous at times. Amy and Jeff didn’t believe Max and Megan. The whole Vaughn family went down to the river and Max threw a rock and heard the lullaby playing again. They all heard it and looked at each other with mysterious looks. The harp stopped playing after 20 minutes. The only odd thing was the lullaby only played when max threw a rock in the river of Venice, Italy. Megan threw a rock into the river but the lullaby didn’t play so the whole Vaughn family tried but the lullaby only played when Max threw a rock in the river. Max peeped through these branches that were blocking his view. Max saw this little person about four feet nine inches. Max went over and introduced himself. Max said, “Hi, my name is Max.” The short person got very scared and said in a frightened voice, “My name is Nikki. How did you find me? I play at night so no one can see me play because everybody is usually sleeping at 9:30 at night.”
Max said, “How come the lullaby only plays when I throw a rock in the river of Venice, Italy?”
“I am like Santa Claus. You’re on my good list and Megan, Jeff, and Amy are on the naughty list. Amy cheats on her diet, Jeff plagiarizes pieces into his book and Megan is just a brat. I like you; you’re nice and try not to fight with Megan and you don’t cause your mom a lot of pain in the butt.”
THE HARP PART 2
NICOLE
Nikki thinks Max is very special. Max said, “How come you live out here and not in a house?”
Nikki said, “I don’t have a family. They all died in a plane crash.” Max had a brilliant idea. Max said, “You can come and live with me and my family.” Max and Nikki went to Max’s house. Amy and Jeff came downstairs and screamed when they saw the little person. “This is Nikki,” Max said. Amy wanted Nikki out of her house right now. “Wait,” Max said. “Nikki is the person who was playing the harp,” he said. “Nikki has nowhere to go,” Max said. Max’s mom said we already have your cousin Jocelyn staying with us for a couple of weeks. Max got on his small chubby legs and begged. Max was begging like it was his last day to live. Amy and Jeff finally gave up and said, “Yes.”
Every night at nine o'clock Nikki went down to the river and played the harp. One day Nikki didn’t play the harp, she felt like there was no use to be playing the harp at night. Max didn’t hear the harp so he went to the spare room and asked Nikki why she wasn’t playing the harp. Nikki said, “I don’t feel like playing.”
“I have no friends so what’s the point?” Nikki said.
Max said, “You said no animals in the house.” Amy and Jeff took the dog to get a rabies shot. They got her fixed and named her Shawna. She was a Siberian husky with a blue eye like the ocean and a brown eye like a puddle of mud. After Jeff brought the dog home he calmed Amy down. Amy said, “He can keep the dog.” Nikki had to go home, but Amy said, “You can live with us forever and ever until the day you die.” So Nikki was part of the Vaughn family.
> >
> > THE END
Another Place, Another Time.
If there was an answer, he’d find it there.
By: Aaron
One night everyone is sleeping on mattress with straw. There was a loud explosion that woke everyone up in the small village.
“Johan! Wake up please!” Screamed Jean.
“What? I’m sleeping”
“The house is on fire!”
The boys ran into the parents room and screamed “Fire!”
They all rush outside and looked at the house.
“ohh no… mom, what are we going to do?” cried Jacob.
“Well the house is burnt down, we gotta find somewhere to live now.” Mom said softly
Couple hours past, Johan, Jacob, and James are building the sail that goes on a railroad track.
“Well well… this looks like a neat project you guys are making.” Said mom.
“Mom! Look! This is what we’ve made for us to get to the newland, dad said!” James screamed.
All the boys lifted the sail-cart that is very light and made out of wood with a big red sail, and lifted it on the track.
“This is the way to our new home!” screamed Jacob.
Mom and dad are talking why dad chose Sweden to move to because it is a free country. The boy’s rough-housed while they talked for a half-hour or so.
“Well kids, go say good bye to your friends and home, we gotta get going before dusk so we can see.” Dad said in a soft voice.
About 10 minutes later Jacob came home.
“Where’s James?” Mom said questioning.
“I don’t know for sure…”
“We need to find him, so we can get going.” Dad said.
Hours past, almost completely dark and we still couldn’t find James.
“What are we going to do?!” Yelled Jean.
“I don’t know” Johan said softly.
Couple minutes later, their was a huge exploded bomb that went off and made everyone fall down to the ground. They all get up and run towards the house that had exploded.
“I think I see him!” cried Jacob.
They walk over to James, he’s laying on the ground, with a big log smashed crossed his back. The whole family started to cry.
“Oh my. It’s my fault!” sobered Jacob.
“No no no, it’s not…” mom softly said.
Few minutes later, everything is quite, and mom and dad discussed. They decided that they were going to stay in Germany. They think it’ll be safe.
The Third-Floor Bedroom
"It all began when someone left the window open."
by: Brandi
Part 1
Sitting on the cozy warm carpet I listen intently to my great aunt Maya. Not making a sound, with my wide eyes focusing straight ahead at the open window. The walls stare back as a sheet of white, blank nothingness. The only thing in the room is a rocking chair that my aunt Maya is sitting in. I had a blanket wrapped around me because every time I hear this story I get the shivers.
“Zelda sat by her fireplace and stirred a large pot of some spell she was cooking up. Her specialty was coming up with as many spells as she can. She never cared if the spells were harmful or not, she just cared about knowing that she was the best witch around.” Aunt Maya began her story, the story I have heard several times before. I have almost memorized the entire story by heart.
“Zelda lived is this very castle that we are sitting in with only her helping dwarves. The dwarves did everything they were told to do, never disobeying Zelda.” I got the chills thinking about the poor dwarves having to do what Zelda told them to. My aunt continued her story “ I always knew how Zelda was, but I still became her closest friend. I tortured the dwarves and made potions and spells just like Zelda. I regret every minute of being her friend.”
Part 2
Brandi
I looked at the walls in the room and wondered how my Aunt Maya could have ever been mean, she never acted mean to anyone. My Aunt Maya is the nicest person in the world. She continued the story, “Zelda needed an important ingredient for a potion she came up with, and she needed a diamond from the king’s crown. She told the dwarves to go get the diamond for her. As always the dwarves obeyed and left to go get what she wanted.”
“A day passed and the dwarves returned empty handed. No diamond for Zelda made her crazy mad. Zelda paced back and forth and remembered a spell that I came up with. Before you knew it the dwarves were gone. Not only were they gone but they were mounted on wallpaper in the room we are sitting in.” Aunt Maya was pointing at the blank walls of the room.
My Aunt Maya sat there thinking to herself. The next part of the story I knew by heart. My Aunt Maya realized that being the bad person is not doing any good for her. She avoided Zelda and all the evil things she did and became a better person. She used her powers for good and necessary reasons.
My Aunt Maya took a deep breath and continued on with the story, skipping over the part I knew. “I lived next door to Zelda most my life. I never knew what happened to those dwarves. Once I stopped talking to her I didn’t really care about what she did because I never really knew a way to stop her.
“After several years past I saw a window open in Zelda’s castle, she always has them closed because it can mess up her spells. I could see a small portion of her wallpaper coming off. I didn’t recognize the wallpaper it must have been new. I noticed a small hummingbird tapping on the top half of the open window and a small white bird from the wallpaper slipping off slowly. Was I dreaming this or was there live birds stuck on wallpaper?” Aunt Maya took a long pause, and then continued. “I used a reverse spell on the wallpaper and was shocked when I saw the dwarves fall from the wall. I yelled over to them to get out of that house while they still could.”
“The dwarves looked very disoriented and they were falling all over each other. I ran out of my castle and over to Zelda’s, unsure of what I was going to do. Frantically looking for the room with the open window, but I could not seem to find it. I jumped at the sound of the front door slamming shut and Zelda screaming at someone or something I was not sure what or who. I finally found the room that I was looking for and discovered the door was locked and there was no key around. I heard Zelda stomping up the stairs. Zelda stopped when she saw I and immediately started chanting a spell, I threw a vase right at her and it knocked her over. I noticed she was wearing a necklace with a key on it. I snatched it off her and tried to open the door, unsuccessful with that because Zelda had grabbed my leg and pulled me back. Quickly in my head I thought up of one of the most dangerous spells I had come up with and started yelling it a loud Zelda caught fire instantly and she burst into a million little pieces that looked like someone hade broke a glass. I let the dwarves out and they ran free. I cleaned up the remains of Zelda and buried them.” My Aunt Maya finished her story.
“Wait, Aunt Maya how do you know Zelda won’t come back again? I asked.
“The day I buried her I cursed her grave so she could never break free. I have never seen the dwarves since that day. Zelda’s house was emptied and I bought it so I could make it into a nice, welcoming, warm home. Someday it will be yours.” My Aunt Maya answered. I just looked at her I couldn’t believe she was going to give this castle to me someday.
My aunt Maya told me it was time I get to bed. She walked me to on one of the spare bedrooms in the castle. I put on my PJ’s, brushed my teeth and got into the big warm bed waiting for me. That night I dreamt about Zelda the dwarves and my Aunt Maya saving them.
I am posting this for my student Nia. Nia is an awesome 2nd grader! We "read" The Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleischman together and then I wrote down the story Nia told me as she looked at the pictures on the pages. It's all about how so many things in real life can compare to a circus. We learned a lot about the circus!
Nia's story:
Once upon a time, a girl saw some buildings that people were doing stuff on them.
When she turns around to her left side, she sees a man on a high rope. He was carrying two buckets with heavy stuff in them. He was balancing.
They are not the same because he has cows on his back and he is a weight lifter. I’m comparing them because the two of them are very strong.
I see the girl looking at some clowns but they are not really clowns, they are kids. They are pretending to be clowns.
The girl was seeing this pancake maker who was juggling pancakes. This girl is not really a juggler. She’s not juggling hoops or balls, instead she’s juggling pancakes.
This girl was seeing a dentist. She thought this was a sword that he was putting in his mouth but it wasn’t a sword.
Now, she’s seeing the juggler and the juggler and the stiltwalker and the stiltwalker is on a ladder not on stilts.
Now, she’s seeing two bothers on the flying trapeze but they are not really on the flying trapeze. They are on something that window washers go on when they wash the windows.
Then she’s seeing all of the things.
It’s like a circus, but it’s not, it’s on the sidewalk!
Now she’s happy because she doesn’t have to go to a circus because she already saw one.
And then, the boy comes along and he will see the circus maybe.
Yes! He saw a circus!
And he sees a squirrel jumping on the high rope.
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