The Polar Express By: Chris Van Allsburg

Book Genre: Fiction

Publishing Info: Houghton Mifflin Company (32 pages)

Awards and honors received: THE CALDECOTT MEDAL

Summary: The Polar Express is an old-fashioned train that takes children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve to meet Santa Clause and to see him off on his annual sleigh ride. This is a personal retelling of the young boy’s adventures as an adult. As he lays in bed on Christmas Eve the boy hears the sounds of a hissing stream train and squeaking metal. He boards the mysterious train and heads towards the North Pole. Once the children got to the North Pole they told them that one child will get the first gift of Christmas. They exited the train and saw thousands of elves and heard the sound of silver sleigh bells. Santa appears and out of all the children picks the boy in the story. He sits on Santa’s lap and gets to pick the first gift of Christmas. There was one thing that the little boy really wanted. He wanted a silver bell from Santa’s sleigh. Santa gladly reached and gave the boy the bell. Shortly after the children loaded back on the Polar Express and on the way home the boy notices he lost the silver sleigh bell from Santa. The next day was Christmas and the family came downstairs to open presents and when they thought everything was opened Sarah (his sister) found a small box behind the tree. The boy open it and it was his bell that he forgot on Santa’s sleigh with a note from Santa. The boy shook the bell and heard the most beautiful noise ever! His mom replied, “Oh that’s too bad honey that your bell is broken.” For only believers can hear the sound of the bell.

Personal rating and reason for rating: ****Great! The illustrations in The Polar Express are very vivid and child friendly. The author uses all of the senses when describing the boy’s journey through out the book. He describes the sensation of the train rolling up and down the mountains "like a car on a roller coaster," and he describes the taste of rich, hot chocolate. These types of vivid descriptions are a great way to model for young children who are working on writing descriptive sentences. It also has a clear beginning, middle and end which lends itself to our literacy standards. This one story also leads to many activities across the curriculum which is a major positive.

Reading level: 3.8 (Third grade, 8th month)

Interest level: K-5

Possible Uses of the text in integrated units of study:

Writing: The Polar Express has a clear beginning, middle and end. I would complete a flow map of the events in the story. Retelling the story helps children not only remember what happened but also to choose the important parts and sequence them in correct order. Students then could go back to their seats and draw a picture of their favorite part of the story and tell me why it’s their favorite part.

Double Bubble Map Activity: After listening to the story we would watch The Polar Express movie in our pajama’s while drinking warm hot chocolate. When the movie is complete we would compare it to the book to see how the events are the same and different.

Reading Extension: I would role play the story with the children after reading it through once. If your classroom permits, have each child take their chair and place it in two rows like they were on the Polar Express. I would read the story again for the second time and the children could use their imagination and pretend they were on the train. At the end I could give each child a bell to ring and wear around their necks the rest of the day.

Potential problems or difficulties: The only potential problem I see would be if a parent told their child there is no Santa and they start telling the other children when we talk about why the boy’s mom didn’t hear the bell. In my years teaching I have only ever had one kindergartner that yelled out, “my mom said there is no Santa.” As a teacher that is a tough place to be in because 99% of your children at that age still believe in Santa and you don't want to ruin that for them! In each situation you just need to handle it was common sense!