A big part of what makes Halloween fun is reading spooky stories. Around this time of year I start to think about one of my favorite storytellers Chris Van Allsburg. He knows how to tell stories with pictures and words. I live right in the city but every year we get to drive out to the country to look for a pumpkin.
We have been reading the Chris Van Allsburg books in my third grade class and Just yesterday we read Two Bad Ants. I decided to bring along The Polar Express for the drive to the country because it is one of my all time favorites. I just found out it won the Caldecott Medal in 1986. I like to go off by myself and think about things and books are my good friend.
Have you seen the pictures Chris draws? He uses pencils and his drawings can be so amazing and spooky. I like the books he does because there are some scary parts when you don't know what will happen. I am just one of those kids who likes to get scared sometimes and not know what is going to happen and this makes me feel so excited. His stories and drawings will do that to you. I like his ideas and have learned it is important to exercise your imagination. He can really draw and something you will notice is that he puts this little white dog in his books. Many artists like to draw from real life. This dog was a bull terrier named Winston that belonged to his brother but died. He remembers him by putting him in all his books and I like looking for that dog.
I want to tell you about a really great part of his website called The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. You can look at these mysterious pictures and make up stories. We did it in Mrs. Merrill's class and it was fun. You could also draw another picture to tell the next part of the story or act them out for your family. You can have fun and exercise your imagination and if you like to write down your stories Chris might put your words on his website.
Click right here to give it a try.
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/introduction.html
There are tips for kids who want to write too:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/tips_for_writers.html
PLEASE Keep Reading CLICK ON 2010 Under BLOG ARCHIVE (at the top of the blog on the right) because we want you to see ALL of our October posts from writers and illustrators. They include Pura Belpré and Americas Award winning illustrators and authors, Monica Brown, Rafael López and Pam Muñoz Ryan who teach us about books. You can also learn about our school and view a list of the Newberry, Caldecott, Pura Belpré and Coretta Scott King Medal books.
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