I’M SO EXCITED I CAN’T STAND IT!!! Okay, I know I’m yelling but this is really, really cool!  I have been a fan of Chris Can Allsburg for so many years and, particularly his book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.  When I was an elementary school librarian, I did the sacrilegious…I cut his book apart!  But it’s destruction was for a good cause.  I laminated them and used them with my 5th graders when they were studying the elements of a short story.  They each chose a picture and were to write a story about it…the only catch was that they had to use the caption somewhere in the story.  Once we were finished and the stories edited, I typed them into the computer (this was before the days of mass digitization) and had them bound and cataloged in our library.  It was great fun and some of the stories were really good!  Now, Harris Burdick has made a reappearance and my library’s edition just arrived!  Some of my favorite young adult authors have contributed stories…M.T. Anderson (love, love, love!!!), Sherman Alexie, Cory Doctorow, Walter Dean Myers and there’s a really wonderful forward by Lemony Snicket!  I’ve already read 2 stories and am going to read the rest today.  I will come back later and let you know about the rest of them!  And may I say again…I’M SO EXCITED!!!