"The Polar Express"

Title: "The Polar Express"
Author and Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985
Genre: Picture Book, Fiction
Age Range: K-6
Won the Caldecott Medal

The story begins with a little boy waiting up to see whether Santa Claus is real or not, but instead of hearing Santa he hears a train conductor yelling, "All Aboard!" The train was filled with lots of children dressed in their nightgowns. They sang Christmas carols while they ate candy and drank hot chocolate. The train finally arrived at the North Pole. Each child got to sit on Santa's knee and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The little boy doesn't ask for a big, extravagant toy, but instead asks for a silver bell from Santa's sleigh. Santa gives him a bell but on the way back home the boy realizes he had lost his bell, but the next morning the boy found a present from Santa. Wrapped in a little box was the silver bell. His parents thought it was broken but really they just couldn't hear it because only the ones who truly believe can hear the bell.

I love this book! I also love the movie, but I think I like the book a lot better. Chris Van Allsburg does a wonderful job with the illustrations. His oil painting makes it look as though I could reach through the book and touch the children and the little silver bell. I think it is amazing how when the book first starts out the reader thinks it is just going to be about a boy taking a train ride on Christmas Eve, but by the end of the book the reader really finds out that the book is really about believing in something. This book makes me feel so happy because it is about Christmas, my favorite holiday!

I will definitely use this book in my classroom one day. I think it is one of the better Christmas books that are out. I could incorporate a Polar Express day in my class where my students could wear their pajamas and we could drink hot chocolate while we watched the movie. For second grade, I would probably have my students to do a venn diagram comparing the book with the movie.