Pauline Cook writes: 'I don't know if you have heard of 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick' but they have provided a lot of inspiration to my year 4 class and would probably inspire older children too. Haris Burdick was an illustrator in the 1950's. He took his illustrations to a publisher with a caption beneath each drawing. He asked the publisher to look at the pictures and said he would return with the rest of the stories the following day. He never returned. The pictures are mysterious and enigmatic they are available as a folio and we ordered them through a book shop. You can get a taster from this web site.

Chris Van Allsburg is the man who 'rediscovered' the illustrations and put them together. [Or the person that created them originally depending on what you believe - GP] If this address doesn't work, search under his name. If you search around a bit further you'll find sites where children have submitted their own versions of the stories. We had a wonderful time writing our own stories last year.'