The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

Has anybody else seen this book?

For ten years I have searched the children's departments, looking for the book with fourteen mysterious pictures, each with a title and a caption. No story within except for the introduction, in which Chris Van Allsburg says that he found these pictures, with caption and title, from a recently deceased freind-of-a-freind.

Who knows why I was destined to pick it up, and whether or not it truly belonged in the juvenile fiction- but it was there.

This image has stuck with me over the years. If nothing kept me looking for it, it was the picture of a man trying to squash a lump of- of something shifting, creating chaos under the rug. I remember reading the caption and laughing out loud.

You know, I'm glad that I checked Van Allsburg's list of works. Jumanji was spoiled as a movie, but Polar Express- the promise that it shows... I almost can't wait to see it.

What, you didn't think I'd miss out on a CGI Tom Hanks playing more roles than you can count on one hand, did you?