What do you truly believe in? This time-honored question is essentially taken into account in the vintage children’s picture story book, The Polar Express. The Polar Express is a hardcover children’s picture (which has been awarded with the Caldecott Medal) written and illustrated by the American illustrator and children’s book writer, Chris Van Allsburg, circa 1985. This rather serene and classical Christmas tale tailgates the abridged story of a young boy (whose name remains unidentified) who is awakened in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve by the sound of a mighty passenger train entitled “The Polar Express”, which ultimately journeys to the North Pole every year on Christmas Eve. Throughout the story, the young boy relentlessly ponders
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After a while, the boy begins to ponder about the existence of Santa Claus, after thinking about what one of his friends had conveyed to him, when outside his bedroom window, he abruptly hears the sharp sounds of hissing steam clouds and screeching metal. He rises and walks over to his window to discover, much to his astonishment, a huge ebony steam engine standing perfectly still adjacent to his home. The boy then proceeds to investigate, donning his robe and slippers and silently creeping downstairs to the front yard. When he inquires the conductor waiting for him at the door of one of several coaches about where the train is heading, the conductor replies, “Why, to the North Pole, of course. This is the Polar Express!” As the train commences its lengthy journey to reach the very top of the world, the conductor pulls the young boy aboard, where he stumbles upon dozens of other children dressed in their nighttime attire, hollering Christmas carols, chowing down on savory candies, and drinking rich, thick, and dark hot chocolate as the Polar Express rushes forward to its designated destination. The Polar Express continues to race forward through …show more content…
The forests then give way to icy mountains, peaks, and valleys that ordinary trains normally wouldn’t venture, but the Polar Express is not hindered in any way, even as the mighty train races down the mountains and into snow-blanketed plains, and eventually across an immense, barren expanse of frozen ocean. Abruptly, a mass of bizarre lights begins to appear on the horizon, like the lights of “a strange ocean liner sailing on a frozen sea”. The conductor then turns to the narrator and the other children aboard the Polar Express and reveals to them that that is where the North Pole, the very top of the world and the fabled residence of Santa Claus and his elves, lies. As the prodigious passenger train rushes
After a while, the boy begins to ponder about the existence of Santa Claus, after thinking about what one of his friends had conveyed to him, when outside his bedroom window, he abruptly hears the sharp sounds of hissing steam clouds and screeching metal. He rises and walks over to his window to discover, much to his astonishment, a huge ebony steam engine standing perfectly still adjacent to his home. The boy then proceeds to investigate, donning his robe and slippers and silently creeping downstairs to the front yard. When he inquires the conductor waiting for him at the door of one of several coaches about where the train is heading, the conductor replies, “Why, to the North Pole, of course. This is the Polar Express!” As the train commences its lengthy journey to reach the very top of the world, the conductor pulls the young boy aboard, where he stumbles upon dozens of other children dressed in their nighttime attire, hollering Christmas carols, chowing down on savory candies, and drinking rich, thick, and dark hot chocolate as the Polar Express rushes forward to its designated destination. The Polar Express continues to race forward through …show more content…
The forests then give way to icy mountains, peaks, and valleys that ordinary trains normally wouldn’t venture, but the Polar Express is not hindered in any way, even as the mighty train races down the mountains and into snow-blanketed plains, and eventually across an immense, barren expanse of frozen ocean. Abruptly, a mass of bizarre lights begins to appear on the horizon, like the lights of “a strange ocean liner sailing on a frozen sea”. The conductor then turns to the narrator and the other children aboard the Polar Express and reveals to them that that is where the North Pole, the very top of the world and the fabled residence of Santa Claus and his elves, lies. As the prodigious passenger train rushes