| We will be spending some time at 221B Baker Street in misty Scotland Yard.
Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Watson, stroll through the London
fog in route to solving many a mysteries! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intrigues
us and entices us with his captivating mysteries of the The Red Headed League
and The Adventure of the Speckled Band, just to name a few. We will become
super sleuths and solve these enthralling stories. Who done it? Ask your
child detective to disclose the fingerprint findings that micro-worlds have
helped us to solve and some interesting facts about the doctor turned mystery
writer!
“While we ponder, weak and weary,” Edgar Allen Poe blends irony and suspense
in disguising the mystery behind “The Raven”. Leave it to us, as we get out
our magnifying glasses to interpret and infer in order to find the real main
idea. Will our written predictions prove true? And, for our intriguing
minds, the Dollhouse Murders…a story of acceptance of differences, centered
around an unsolved mystery of an old dollhouse and town secret. Can we use
our deductive reasoning skills to solve this age old unsolved crime? The
Mysteries of Harries Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg tells the true story of a
man who remains a complete mystery, even today. A man by the name of Peter
Wenders worked for a children’s book publisher, choosing stories and pictures
that would be turned into books. Close to 50 years ago, a man walked into
his office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Bringing an assortment of
drawings, just one from each of the stories, he dropped them off, agreeing to
bring the stories the next morning. He did not return the next day, or the
day after that. In fact, Harris Burdick was never heard from again. Leaving
only the incredible illustrations and the fascinating title to each, he and
his unfinished business remains a mystery to this day. His disappearance is
not the only mystery left behind. There are some clues. It will be quite
difficult for us to look at the drawings and their captions without imagining
the wonderful stories that go along with them. Chris Van Allsburg captures
these in his book in hopes that children will be inspired by them also;
enough to write their own and solve the mystery of the missing man and his
story beginnings. Another Van Allsburg classic, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
leaves us on a “cliffhanger” of suspense in another mystery of a little boy
and a runaway dog. Does The Widow’s Broom keep us imagining what is really
going on!? The conclusion will surely surprise us all…
Does Will Moses tell in paint what author Washington Irving writes? The
imagery and powerful storylines bring classic stories to life once again. As
an artist of the upper Hudson River, Will Moses brings his knowledge of the
valley and its legends to his work. The classic tall tale, Rip Van Winkle
tells about a good natured (but lazy!) man who sneaks away into the hills and
falls asleep. When he awakens, twenty years later, Rip finds that quite a
few things have changed! The Revolutionary War has been fought! In The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the lanky Ichabod Crane, the schoolmaster of the
small village, is hauntingly fascinated and equally terrified by the ghostly
tales of the Headless Horseman. One dark night, Ichabod is chased through
the dark, autumn woods by the phantom rider and is never heard from again.
Did he meet his fate that chilling night?
Johnny Appleseed, another classic by Irving was a legend even in his own
time – tall stories abound about the kindhearted woodman that talked to
wolves, and left a legendary trail of apple seeds that soon grew into trees
wherever he went. We must recall this tale whenever we see an apple tree in
bloom. We may be reenacting The Spector Bridegroom, another mystery by our
own, Washington Irving.
The French and Indian War was the spark that ignited the Revolution. Who was
the war really between? What were the causes and the effects of the sequence
of events that led up to the bitter feud? What did the Proclamation of 1763
really imply for the colonies? Who was the young 21 year old sent to drive
the French out of Fort Duquesne, Virginia? Your child will begin an
illustrated ABC calendar of the American Revolution, taking note of all of
the interesting occurrences of the war. It will be a time to remember.
| |
