Help me find a book with mysterious illustrations from the 80's/90's.

October 4, 2024 7:48 AM

When I was in elementary school (1985-1992ish) I had several teachers who used a book or books with detailed illustrations as creative writing prompts for our class. In my memory the books were just illustrations with no words, full of black and white drawings and they had a slightly mysterious vibe. I think the author's or illustrator's first name may have been Christopher. In my memory, they were similar in vibe to Dixit illustrations.
posted by shesbookish to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: Maybe The Mysteries of Harris Burdick?
posted by imelcapitan at 7:58 AM on October 4 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: That is absolutely it! I tried every search term under the sun, but of course AskMeFi gets it on the first answer! Thank you, imelcapitan!
posted by shesbookish at 8:01 AM on October 4 [1 favorite]

We definitely used The Mysteries of Harris Burdick as story prompts in my 1980s elementary school as well!
posted by mskyle at 8:03 AM on October 4

Yep, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. It was published in 1984, and scores of teachers have used them as writing prompts - and in 2011 some professional writers did as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:03 AM on October 4 [2 favorites]