So, if you know me, there is usually an author's name following the name of a book. There is a suspicious lack of author name up there, if you'll notice. This is because this book is a collection of short children's stories by SO MANY GREAT AUTHORS. I will list them for you here, and help you out with what they've written, cause you all probably are not as in sync with the children's literature circle as I am. And no, I am not counting you, mother.
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick is by
Sherman Alexie, who wrote The Absolute True Story of a Part Time Indian, and the movie Smoke Signals (which was adapted from one of his short stories).
M.T. Anderson, who wrote The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, volumes I & II, among others. I haven't read these, but I really want to. Here is a link to his website, which is actually pretty cool.
Kate DiCamillo, who wrote Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I know I love Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Tale of Despereaux was just turned into a movie. It's on my list of books to read immediately.
Corey Doctorow, who has written nothing I've heard of, but I'm sure he's great.
Jules Feiffer, who 1) is a man, and 2) illustrated The Phantom Tollboth by Norton Juster. Plus, he wrote a book called A Room with a Zoo. Awesome.
Stephen King, who is Stephen King.
Tabitha King, Stephen King's wife. That's right, they're both writers. Damn. How cool would it be to live in their house? Although it may be a tad creepy... Stephen King's novels are a little frightening at times... But still. I bet their bookshrine is awesome.
Lois Lowry, who wrote The Giver, which is one of my favorite books of all time. If you've not read it, READ IT NOW so as to prevent further wreckage of your childhood that is almost over. It's not over yet, you see, if you haven't read this book. Also, I have found out two things: one, they are making a movie of The Giver, which should be pretty cool, and two, there is a third book in The Giver trilogy that I haven't read--WHOA did I just get excited for this. (The second is called Gathering Blue and was published in 2000, seven years after The Giver.) She also wrote the Anastasia Krupnik series.
Gregory Maguire, who's name I'm not sure how to spell because all the letters are always capitalized. How annoying. He is most famous for Wicked. The book that the musical was based on.
Walter Dean Myers, who wrote a bagillion books, but none of which I recognize. But he was mentioned in one of Sharon Creech's novella's, as an author a boy admires. (Sharon Creech wrote Walk Two Moons and Chasing Redbird. We like her.)
Linda Sue Park, who wrote A Single Shard.
Louis Sachar, who was my favorite author growing up--before even J.K. Rowling. He wrote Wayside School is Falling Down, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and more importantly, Someday Angeline, Dogs Don't Tell Jokes, and Holes. All amazing books. If you haven't read these--what are you doing? Why are reading my blog??? Go read those books instead. Complete your childhood.
Jon Scieszka, who wrote The Stinky Cheese Man and other Stupid Tales, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs with Lane Smith. Which, if you remember Logan and Mira, were some of our favorite picture books growing up. At least they were some of my favorite.
And, last but not least, Chris Van Allsburg. He is an author and an illustrator, made famous by little books like, Jumanji, or The Polar Express, or Zathura. And not to mention The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.
So basically, A LOT of the authors I loved as a child are in this book. Oh, and Lemony Snicket wrote the introduction.
Anyways, on to why this is awesome. This is metafiction, baby. This book is set up with the story presented in The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which is just a series of images and captions, along with an introduction saying that Harris Burdick dropped these off to an editor, and that he would be back the next day with the complete stories and more pictures. Only he never came back, so all the editor had were these pictures. So what Lemony Snicket presents in his introduction (posted below) is the idea that Harris Burdick has, in fact, been hiding amongst his cohorts and has given his writings to various authors in children's literature to publish as their own. AWESOME.
Why is this awesome? Because Harris Burdick is a fictional character. The drawings are Chris Van Allsburg's (and they are quite beautiful, actually). What this book does is present a mystery in the fictional world that the reader cannot immediately distinguish from the real world. I even had to do some research before I was sure it was all made up. But here's the greatest part: it is a massive conspiracy amongst my favorite authors. I mean, WOW. Seriously, just watch this video--it is amazing.
Also, I have to say, I'm really loving reading short stories for children. You don't see that very often. Generally, children's books are either picture books or chapter books. This is a nice break. I may have to try a few of my own.
Anyways, try and pick up a copy of this book--I've only read three chapters so far (look forward to another blog post once I finish), but I absolutely love it. It's rather interesting to read new work by some of my favorite authors. And it's especially interesting now that I'm 21 and rather critical. I'm telling you--stay posted for my thoughts. Also, I only posted what I think is the most well known of each of the above author's works. They have all written much, much more. Google them all, I say!
If I could create my own tea party with anybody I wanted, I would invite J.K Rowling, Marishka Hargitay, Louis Sachar, Lois Lowry, Philip Pullman, Brian Selznick, Eoin Colfer, and hey, why not--High King Peter the Magnificent.
I can't wait for my invitation. I will be invited to the literary teas, and the children's books picnics, and the Young Adult stories brunches. Just you wait.
L.R. Ogden
