The Polar Express

The Polar Express
Written and Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
(A children’s book that has been produced as a feature film)

This book is a wonderful story about believing in Santa. The story is the recounting of an adventure that the storyteller had as a boy. It begins on Christmas Eve with a magical train ride aboard the Polar Express to the North Pole. The storyteller is chosen from all of the children that were aboard the train to receive the first Christmas gift. He asks Santa for one silver bell from his sleigh. He puts the bell is his pocket, but unknowingly loses it (through the hole in his pocket) before he gets back on the train. The bell is returned as a gift under the tree from S.C. on Christmas morning. Only he and his little sister can hear the bell ring since they believe in Santa (unlike their parents). The book ends with the now elderly author still able to hear the bell ring since he is still a true believer in Santa.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a simple but unforgettable story with wonderful illustrations. The lighting in a majority of the illustrations seems to come from the moon, but is never shown. I can see this book being used as part of a family tradition to read on Christmas Eve with hot chocolate and ending with the ringing of a silver sleigh bell, to see who still believes.

My family has a tradition of reading ‘Twas the Night before Christmas on Christmas Eve. I think this book should be introduced as the new family tradition as children get older (3rd or 4th grade) and their friends start filling their heads with doubt about the existence of Santa. I believe that this book would help to revive their belief in the spirit of Christmas.

As soon as I looked at the illustrations of this book, I knew that they were by the same illustrator that did Jumanji. The illustrations in both books resemble pictures of sculptures (they look almost 3-dimensional).

I learned from reading this book that a new spin can be put on stories about believing in Santa. This story is so simple and is still appealing to both children and adults. I haven’t seen the movie yet. It is scheduled to be released on DVD in November of 2005. I am very interested to see how they made a one hundred minute long movie out of a book that took just ten minutes to read.