The Polar Express

Amazon.com Price: $16.99 (as of 12/16/2024 10:20 PST- Details) & FREE Shipping.

In Stock

Category:

Description

For twenty years, The Polar Express has been a world wide bestseller and Christmas classic. A perfect keepsake for any family, this beautiful edition will also be handed down to each new generation of readers.

In 1986 The Polar Express was awarded the prestigious Caldecott Medal and hit the New York Times bestseller list. Since that time, more than six and a half million copies have been sold, and every December it faithfully reappears on national bestseller lists. In 2004, The Polar Express became a blockbuster holiday movie. The DVD release in 2005 assures, that like the , the movie will transform a holiday classic.

One couldn’t select a more delightful and exciting premise for a children’s than the tale of a young boy lying awake on Christmas Eve only to have Santa Claus sweep by and take him on a travel with other children to the North Pole. And one couldn’t ask for a more talented artist and author to tell the story than Chris Van Allsburg. Allsburg, a sculptor who entered the genre nonchalantly when he created a children’s as a diversion from his sculpting, won the 1986 Caldecott Medal for this , among the many award winners he’s produced. The Polar Express rings with vitality and wonder.


Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Chris Van Allsburg

Dear Amazon Readers,

Over the past twenty-five years, many people have shared stories with me about the effect that reading The Polar Express has had on their families and on their celebration of Christmas.

One of the most poignant was told to me five or six years ago at a signing in the Midwest, on a snowy December evening. As I inscribed a book to a woman in her sixties, she told me that it was the second copy she had owned, and wanted to know if she could she tell me what had happened to the first. “Of course,” I answered.

A dozen years earlier the woman, who had no children of her own, befriended a neighbor, a boy of about seven, named Eddie. He would incessantly cross his driveway to visit her.

She had a collection of picture books, which she read to him, but around the holidays, the only story he ever wanted to hear, time and again, was The Polar Express. One year she offered to give him the book, but Eddie declined because he wanted to hear her read it aloud to him, which she continued to do every year until the boy and his family moved away.

Years later the woman learned from a mutual acquaintance that Eddie had grown up and transform a soldier. He was stationed in Iraq. Since Christmas was approaching, the woman made up our minds to send him a gift box. She included candy, cookies, socks, and her old copy of The Polar Express. She wasn’t sure what a nineteen-year-old battle-weary soldier would do with the book in an army barracks in the Middle East, but she wanted him to have it. A month later, after the holidays had passed, she received a letter from Eddie.

He told her he was very happy to have heard from her and to get the box of gifts. He had opened it in his barracks, just before curfew, with some of his fellow GIs already in their bunks. A soldier in the next bunk spotted the book. He knew it well from his own childhood and asked Eddie to read it. “Out loud?” he asked. “Yeah,” his buddy told him.

Eddie, quietly and a little self-consciously, read The Polar Express. When he’d finished and closed the book, a moment of silence passed. Then from at the back of him a voice called out, “Read it again,” and another joined in, “Yeah, read it again,” and a third added, “This time, louder.” So Eddie did.

He wrote to the woman that he’d stood up and read it to his comrades just the way he remembered she had read it to him.

All aboard,

Chris Van Allsburg


Recipes and Activities to Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The Polar Express

(Click on Images for the Recipe or Activity [PDF])

Snacks for Santa


Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Polar Chocolate Nougat Caramel Squares

Christmas Snowball Cookies

Fun and Games


A Polar Express Word Search

A Polar Express Crossword

A Polar Express Maze


Frequently Bought Together Loading...

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More