Review: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Title: The Polar Express

Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Oct. 28, 1985
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Pages: 32
Genre: Children ages 2 on up
Review: ebook
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk 

The Polar Express is a treasured holiday tradition. This lavish gift set includes a CD audio recording read by Liam Neeson, a keepsake "All Aboard" ornament, and a note from author Chris Van Allsburg.
Awarded the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1986, The Polar Express has sold more than 7 million copies, become a classic holiday movie, and been translated into stage productions that take place across the United States during the holiday season.

When I saw I could borrow this book on prime I jumped at the chance. I figured this would be a great read to read at Christmas time. I read this book to A though I didn't read it too K only because the words were small and I didn't feel like squinting my eyes yet again to try to read it. That is the only reason I am giving it a 4 star because the font is small. 

Overall a great Christmas book to read as it gets you ready with the Christmas Spirit. 

We follow a little boy who gets woken up on Christmas Eve to see Santa at the North Pole alone with other children. While there one of them gets to pick the first present of Christmas. What is picked is pretty neat. The bell symbolizes a lot in my opinion. You don't have to see to believe which I think is a great message. 

After reading the ebook I decided to go out and purchase the book which I will read too both of my children on Christmas Eve night after we watch the movie. This is a really great book with wonderful illustrations done. 

Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.

Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.

When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.

When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.

There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.

The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.

Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.