Thursday 12 August 2010

Chris Van Allsburg


This is the official site of Chris Van Allsburg, author of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Browse through the site. You can visit the Story Writing Contest but do not miss visiting his site where you have an interactive section with games. You can also read his biography and get to know some other books written by him.
Hope you enjoy it!

18 comments:

Axel said...

Hi Miss Ale,
It says that 12 years have passed and that still there isn't any clue about hime. There also is a Reader's contest and this is one of the sentences of on of the copies:
Alex Treadaway, Age: 13

The Harp
Grandfather rocked slowly on the rocker, descending back and rising slowly. His dark eyes were cast down on the boy before him. The wrinkles that decorated his lips and skin were sagging. His hair...
I liked the stories written by the people who participated on the Reader's contest.
See you,

Axel G

Anonymous said...

Hello Miss Ale,
I loved the page and the entrance to the contest. I wanted to enter but the list of winers appeared and I knew it had finished, what a pitty. I saw lots of stories written by 2 graders it was incredible and there were so good stories that why they won. The story that Axel copied it is really interesting. 12 years and they couldn't find him and the copy of the story is just for that age. You have to find imagination in your head with the tecnology and ipad's, LCD, Netbook's, etc. In school I really need time to find imagination somewere in my head. But I am working on it!
See you in class!
Keep on Blogging!!
Kisses!!!
Lucia L. Fleming 6a

Anonymous said...

Hello Mrs Ale!!
The site is awesome!! I really want to now who is Mr. Burdick it left me with a lot of suspense, it is like I need to now it. Chris Van Allsburg is a genius he wrote a lot of books and I now most of them because there are movies about them and because Anne and Lili read a lot of them. Lili told us she is a great fan of him. I would like to read his version of the Mysteries of Mr. Burdick.
Bye
Pancu

Anonymous said...

O.M.G, this is so interesting! I want to know more things about it, Miss Ale, hope they all read this post because is very interesting and makes you wanna now moreee.
Se ya tooomoroww.
Oliver.P^^

Anonymous said...

Hi Miss Ale
I loved it !!! I read his biography , but I think if he "dissapreared" or "never" excisted how there is a biography. And I cheked the contest, and how impressive was the amount of people who wrorte stories inspired in the pictures!!!! I cant belive he has a webpage!!!!!
A Message from Chris Van Allsburg:

Twelve years have passed since this introduction appeared in the portfolio
version of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.
PORTFOLIO INTRODUCTION
In 1984, I wrote the following as an introduction to The Mysteries of Harris Budick.
I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named Peter Wenders. Though Mr. Wenders is retired now, he once worked for a children's book publisher, choosing the stories and pictures that would be turned into books.

Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wenders's office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He'd brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Wenders liked his work.

That I coppied from the page I read it all!!!

Kissees
Valen P. 6A

Anonymous said...

Miss Ale,

I really enjoyed the website. Thank you so much for telling us about it.
Camila

Anonymous said...

Hi miss Ale
it was a really good site
I read a lot of the booksof chris
Bye
Antonio

Anonymous said...

Hi Miss Ale,
It was amazing the page!!!! I saw the timeline, and the book of Harris Burdick, and the I read a part of the biography. I think I read some book of Chris Van Allsburg like:
- Jumanji
- Well, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
- The Polar Express
- Swan Lake
- Zathura
But some I saw them in movies.

Bye Ale,
Lourdes Undem 6c

Anonymous said...

hi miss ale
i loved the entrance to the page . it is like a simple picture and then when you touch the items of the pictures light starts appearing and there is a movement or a change.
it is really mysterios burdick and i really want to know who really is him i think that mabe is "Borges"but i don t know
kisses vale g

carolina said...

Hello Miss Ale!
It was a very good site. I liked how it starts. The first thing that appears. I liked the site's format. I read his biography and I saw his time-line. When you do click in the book in another window it appears information. He saw the sculptures that he mad and the posters and the things that he drew. Then I saw news and I read his speeches there were only two about the Polar Express and Jumanji, and his awards. After I went to the interactive part and I played games. There were three of them but I only played the memory game that was too easy because it was small. The first time I solved it in 18 tries and the second time another 18 tries. It was quite a coincidence. The interactive part is really good you could colour, play games, write stories, watch clips and much more things. When I wanted to watch clips I didn’t know how but finally I realized.
Very good site!
Keep on Blogging!
Kisses
Caro

Anonymous said...

Hello Miss Ale,
I cant belive that Chris Van Allsburg wrote Jumanji, when I was little it was my favorite movie and I could not stop watching it.
Ale.E

Anonymous said...

HI!!!
I was impressed by the stories!!
they are very good and I also liked the part that says

Grandfather rocked slowly on the rocker, descending back and rising slowly. His dark eyes were cast down on the boy before him. The wrinkles that decorated his lips and skin were sagging. His hair...
(as axel)
It is very descriptive.

nickyb

Anonymous said...

hi miss ake
it was very good the site I had read lots of thing in it being entretained.

Anonymous said...

hi miss ale,
Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18th, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947. Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.

When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.

When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.

There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.

The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.

Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.

Because of the high level of academic achievement at East Grand Rapids High School, and because each year a number of students chose to go to the University of Michigan, they sent an admissions officer to Chris’s high school. The admissions officer would interview students and admit them on the spot if their grades and test scores satisfied the school’s requirements.
MarcoS

Anonymous said...

Hi miss ale,
Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18th, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.

Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.

When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.

When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.

There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.

The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.

Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.

Because of the high level of academic achievement at East Grand Rapids High School, and because each year a number of students chose to go to the University of Michigan, they sent an admissions officer to Chris’s high school. The admissions officer would interview students and admit them on the spot if their grades and test scores satisfied the school’s requirements.
MarcoS

Anonymous said...

Sorry for posting two times, there was an error in my computer.
MarcoS

Anonymous said...

Hello Miss Ale
This site is amazing it is very interesting whatever you want to know about him you can find it in that page. I didn't know that he wrote so many famous stories now a day such as Jumaji. Keep posting
Pierre 6a

Anonymous said...

Hello Miss Ale what a great site. I wanted to enter the contest but they had already selected the winners. Even though the site is very good.
Marina 6b