The Polar Express.

This is a favourite Christmas story of mine and although in some ways it is young for Little Miss, she still enjoys the magic of it. The book is quite different to the film, although we also enjoy the film.

At the very heart of the story is the magic that is Santa Claus and is for all who truly believe. It centres around a little boy who wants to hear the reindeer bells on Christmas Eve, and when he does hear a sound and looks out of his bedroom window, he sees a train. He is invited on board the train and off they go to the North Pole where the boy meets Santa Claus and asks for a bell. I am not going into great detail but when he find the bell under his tree, his parents cant hear the sound and as time goes on fewer and fewer of his friends can hear the sound, because it rings only for those who believe.

That brief synopsis of the story really does the book no justice at all. The story is lovely to read aloud and is almost poetic with lots of similes and descriptive language.

The story is set out as bordered double page spreads with the writing on the left hand side of the pages but taking up most of the spread is the picture which corresponds to the writing. The illustrations are bold and each one is a story in itself with plenty to talk about and they are great if you want to use them to ask children to describe what they see. Like the text the pictures will automatically encourage lots of descriptive language.

ISBN: 978-1-84270-949-8

Publisher: Anderson Pressltd

RRP: £6.99

VERDICT...

A really magical Christmas story. For reading aloud to children and to teach similes and adjectives, I have used it in school at different times of the year although I do prefer to work it into Christmas reading.
Very young children may find the story a little difficult to understand but they will certainly enjoy looking at the pictures. It seems to be ideally suited to children from about the age of 7 who usually understand the message. Even for children who are confident readers, I tend tofind that its best to read the story out loud to them so they can concentrate on the flow of the words and the pictures rather than getting bogged down with the reading of the text.

A truly lovely book which I would recommend.
Thanks for reading

Daniela xx