The Polar Express

The Polar Express

Author/Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg

Audio book by: Liam Neeson

Time: 16 minutes and 36 seconds

Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Book Award: The Caldecott Medal 

Grade:  Kindergarten and up

The audio starts with the introduction of the title and the authors name, Chris Van Allsburg. It starts off with a peaceful classic music. The story is about a boy getting on a train while he was looking out the window on Christmas Eve. The train is called the Polar Express, and it is heading to the North Pole. As soon as the Polar Express reached the North Pole, the kids got out and saw Santa himself. Santa picked the boy and asked him what he wants for Christmas. He wanted one of the silver bells from Santa’s sleigh. Santa gave him the silver bell and declared it the first gift of Christmas. Later on when they got back to the train, the boy got all sad because he lost the silver bell due to a hole on his pocket. He then got dropped off and the next day is Christmas. He opened his gift from Santa and he heard the Silver bell ring. His parents did not hear it ring and thought it was broken but it was only him and his sister who can hear it because they believe in Santa and the spirit of Christmas. At the end, as he grows up, he is the only one left who can hear the bell ring.

This is a nice audio book for students because it gives the Christmas vibes and helps the students with their imagination. It gives the imagination to the students of actually being in the Polar Express due to the music and the voice of the person telling the story. It gives a peaceful vibe and sparks enthusiasm for the holidays. This will be great to play during December before the winter break so that the students will be able to get ready for Christmas. This audio book is really nice and I will have it stopped or broken down few minutes throughout the week or have a day for it to play since it is only about 17 minutes.