The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales / With an Introduction by Lemony Snicket

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2011: Sublimely curious, strangely serious, terrifyingly hilarious--the 14 new short stories by authors Stephen King, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers and other bestselling storytellers in Chris Van Allsburg's The Chronicles of Harris Burdick are a perfect match for the unexplained drawings that inspired them: the beloved, eerie black and white images, accompanied only by a title and caption, in The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, originally published by Allsburg in 1984. What could have been a basic writing exercise in the hands of these professionals unfolds as thoughtful, intriguing tales only masters could tell. With an introduction by Lemony Snicket, the stories close the loop on the mysterious drawings, but if they aren't up to readers' satisfaction, it can merely serve as another reason to gaze upon Allsburg's layered pictures once again, 27 years later. --Alexandra Foster