We've written about "The Polar Express" a lot over many years of writing and maintaining this blog. Every year we find a way to work it into our "Booky Advent Calendar" list of perfect yuletide books, and though it feels a bit weird to be talking about it again in the height of summer I thought it was worth taking one more journey on that fabulous train, purely because it's definitely one of our keepers.

"The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg is one of two books we own by him, and it's the tale of a young boy who feels like he's beginning to question the very existence of Santa Claus. Surely he can't be real?

One night before Christmas as he's settling down to sleep, a strange noise wakes him, and he stares out of his window in disbelief at what he sees. A train, in his street, pulled up and ready to take on passengers.

He dashes down in his dressing gown to find out what's going on, and is soon whisked aboard The Polar Express on a return journey to the North Pole, to see Santa himself and all his elves. It's a beautifully constructed tale with the sort of art that instantly draws kids (and adults like me who LOVE hugely detailed art) right into the story. It's stayed with us all these years, and now even as C feels increasingly just like the main character in the story, whenever we get a Lindt reindeer with a tinkling little bell on it as a Christmas pressie, we can't resist giving it a tinkle just to see if we still believe...Beautiful, absolutely beautiful stuff and I know so many other book bloggers hold this one dear.

The second "Keeper" from Chris is "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick".

We have very strong opinions on how disastrous the 'second version' of this book was (the one where famous literary luminaries gave their own 'take' on each of the images / stories alluded to in the original book. But the original is a work of genius, and I think it was the first time that C understood and embraced the concept of surrealism.

Each image comes with a short sentence or two. The words don't describe the image exactly, but give the mere whiff of a story behind Chris's gorgeous, haunting and hypnotic illustrations.

For a child this is like catnip as they then take on the role of storyteller themselves, describing their own imaginative 'take' on what has happened, what is happening, and what's about to happen in each case.

We've read this one many times, and C's interpretations often change which is quite interesting. Without getting into a deep philosophical debate about books like this, they achieve something that I really wish I'd seen more of in kidlit, letting kids 'own' the stories themselves (Shaun Tan - Who will feature in this list later on substantially - is another author who has a knack for giving the faintest whiff of a story for kids to let their imaginations loose on too).

Both books are things of beauty and it's also worth noting that in the case of "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" it's one of the few children's books that purposely chooses a largely monochrome palette for its illustrations and I think this also gives it that weird air of mystery and atmosphere that kids will immediately be intrigued and stimulated by.

Original reviews: 

The Polar Express

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

Day 22 on our Booky Advent Calendar and the big day is SO CLOSE now..!

Chris Van Allsburg's books always have a wonderful touch of the magical and surreal about them and never more so than in this utterly perfect christmas tale. Forget what you know about the CGI movie based on this (though, actually we really love the movie too!) - dip into the book which is one of the most atmospheric and perfectly paced christmas stories ever written for children.

We always make a habit of digging this out in the run-up to Christmas. It's the tale of a young boy who boards a magical train that shudders to a halt outside his door one Christmas Eve. The train guard loudly announces that the train is destined for the North Pole, and the passengers will meet Santa! What child could possibly resist!?

Amazing refreshments are served (just reading Van Allsburg's descriptions of the hot chocolate in this book make your mouth water!) and the train gallops through the landscape before arriving at all points north.

The young boy is miraculously chosen by Santa to receive the first christmas gift and he chooses something fairly humble, a bell from Santa's sleigh. But on the way back home the boy realises that he put the bell in his nightgown pocket - and that pocket has a hole in it!

The bell is lost, and the boy is downcast. But with the magic and spirit of christmas, will the boy's christmas wish come true after all?

We've read this so many times - which is why you'll always see a tiny bell somewhere on our christmas tree. We shake the bell to see if everyone can hear it (if you read this story you'll understand why).

An utterly perfect christmas tale. If you only know the movie, or have never seen either, then you definitely need this book on your christmas list!

Charlotte's best bit: As the boy grows older he can still hear the bell, even though his parents (and eventually his sister) can't

Daddy's Favourite bit: Utterly and completely magical. We love Van Allsburg's books but this is our absolute favourite.

Children have a wonderful capacity for dealing with the surreal. It might seem like an unfair test, but if your child can find joy in "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" and it can consume them for an evening, discussing the tiny fragments of story that can, with a little imagination, be pieced together into something larger and all-conquering, then I think you've done a pretty durned fine job of raising your little ones and I tip my metaphorical hat to you.

"The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" by Chris Van Allsburg, a man more famous for his seminal Christmas story "The Polar Express", tempts you to dive into stories in a wholly original way. Mythical mysteries pieced together from the drawings and (some might say insane) ramblings of one Harris Burdick, Van Allsburg's strange and other-worldly tome can lift the heart, appear somewhat sinister, or invite the reader and viewer on a magical journey.

When you consider that, within its pages, each disjointed snippet of text accompanied by utterly lovely monochromatic illustrations, feeds you with the tiniest of tiny sparks to turn into a raging inferno of story, it's an approach that demands involvement. In effect, Van Allsburg is handing over the reins to you at the earliest opportunity to finish the chronicles in whichever way you see fit.

I took the approach of discussing the text. As beautiful as the images are, and as involving and atmospheric as they are, the text has the power here and the whole 'tone' of the illustration can change simply from one single line. For instance, the cover piece (you can see a bit of it in our header image) could mean anything but the accompanying text speaks of a magical journey to the amazing palace you can just about make out in the distance.

What's interesting about this book is that there now exist real stories to accompany the images. Chris Van Allsburg, along with a brace of famous authors including Lemony Snicket, Stephen and Tabitha King, Cory Doctorow and others have delved into The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and have given their own interpretations of the original text and pictures (with varying levels of success).

In my opinion, none match the things that Charlotte came up with for these. A child's unhurried uncluttered imagination speaks of worlds and of beings we couldn't possibly conjure up and her brilliant take on each image (particularly the one of the 'flying nun' which was A) wholly irreverent and B) nearly made me snort tea out of my nose) eclipsed anything I could've come up with.

This book is utterly magical. It demands a lot but the reward is utterly incredible. Get it.

Charlotte's best bit: The flying nun story. Apparently (I didn't realise this) but Nuns hide jetpacks under their habits. That explains EVERYTHING!

Daddy's favourite bit: It's like a construction kit for stories where you're given a tiny tiny piece and asked to build the whole teeming cityscape of the rest of the story out of your grey matter. Utterly enchanting and wonderful!

Though Christmas has long since passed, and the last vestiges of the christmas turkey have long been shotgunned into space, we're sort of missing the ability to lazily pick chocolates off the christmas tree and dream that somewhere between the frequent rainstorms we'd get a bit of snow so Santa's sled could run a little easier on Christmas Eve (Note to parents - any awkward questions from your little ones about how Santa's sleigh works without snow? It flies of course!)

Chris Van Allsburg's utterly brilliant "The Polar Express" is our book of the week, and was one of our Christmas Stocking books. I remember seeing this when my (now big and lanky) brother was just a toddler but for some reason we never picked it up for him.

Now Charlotte's old enough to appreciate the difference between books and movies I thought I'd give this a go. You see, she absolutely loves the movie to pieces (and quite rightly so) but the two are light-years apart, save that same cosy atmosphere that comes across in both.

Personally though, I prefer the book. Why? Because Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations and the lilting text of his story beats any CGI render farm, or any crazed scenery-chewing vocalisations from Mr Hanks. With the aid of some amazingly beautiful painted panels and such descriptive scene setting, you feel like you're lazing in your most comfortable armchair listening to someone telling you the story of how they still believe in Christmas, and why.

A few reads through and Charlotte managed to start distancing this from the movie (and stopped asking where the little girl and the kid from the wrong side of the tracks were) and started to appreciate it in a similar way to me. It's so atmospheric, so beautifully produced and as satisfying as the rich chocolatey goodness you imagine those children enjoying as they guzzle their hot chocolate in the restaurant car and speed towards the north pole on the Polar Express itself.

There's probably a good fistful of blog posts in what happens when a well-loved children's book gets turned into a movie or TV adaptation and that's definitely something I'll have to do at some point. But for the time being, having this cosy and utterly brilliant reminder of the magic of Christmas as a book of the week in wet January has made me really crave mince pies and mulled wine again.

Charlotte's best bit: The panel with the wolves. For some reason she's fascinated by this and wants to know what the wolves are up to and why they are chasing the train!

Daddy's favourite bit: I love the cynical kid, he's me - but most of all I love the way Van Allsburg paints a more vivid, colourful and atmospheric picture in my head through his book than Hollywood could ever manage.