Read this when
The Polar Express
If you can still hear the bell, you haven't lost the magic. 🔔
Who it's for
The whole book is built on the electric feeling of the night before something wonderful: lying awake, listening, hoping.
Restless, buzzing with excitement→Wonder, warm anticipation
Feelings it meets
What it is
On Christmas Eve a boy lies awake listening for Santa's sleigh bells and instead hears a train stop outside his house. He boards the Polar Express with other children in pajamas and rides north through forests and mountains to the North Pole, where Santa chooses him to receive the first gift of Christmas: a silver bell from the sleigh.
Where to find it
In print (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Clarion) and in almost every public library; audiobook and ebook editions available. Adapted as a 2004 film directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Before you start
Age: Ages 3+
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1
