The Polar Express

Fantasy: Caldecott Medalist

Allsburg, C. (1985). The Polar Express. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing.

The Polar Express is a magical story of the power of believing in something such as Santa Claus.  The story follows a small boy who boards a magical train to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. When he gets to the North Pole he realizes that he is apart of the "First Gift of Christmas" Celebration.  The little boy was actually chosen to be the lucky one who received the first gift! While he knew he could ask for  anything in the world, he chose to ask for something really special.

While The Polar Express may seem like a book for younger elementary students, there are several lessons you could do that would be appreciated by older elementary students as well.  In the writing of this book, the author uses a lot of comparisons to help illustrate his story.  As upper elementary students are learning about similes and metaphors, this book could be used as an example.  An example would be to make a chart comparing the similes and metaphors to the plain language.

"We drank hot cocoa as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars" :

 The hot chocolate was sweet and good

"Faster and faster we ran along, rolling over peaks and through valleys like a car on a roller coaster" :

 The train went fast over hills

After comparing the two different types of "languages", students can practice writing their own similes and metaphors about their own lives.