Can YOU hear the ringing of the Christmas bell?

THE POLAR EXPRESS, by Chris Van Allsburg
AR Level: 3.8 Points: .5
Vocabulary Quiz Available

Told in first person, this is the account of a young boy’s trip to the North Pole, on the magical "Polar Express" which picks him up outside his house on Christmas Eve. Upon arriving at the North Pole, the boy sees a huge city filled with factories for making toys. Everyone is moving to the center of the city where Santa gives the first gift of Christmas to a lucky child. The boy is chosen out of the assembled crowd, and Santa gives him a silver bell from his sleigh. When he gets back on the Polar Express, he realizes he’s lost the bell through a hole in his robe. The train delivers him home and on Christmas morning when he opens his gifts, he finds the silver bell along with a note from Santa telling him to fix the hole in his pocket. When he rang it, it made the sweetest sound—but his parents could not hear it because they didn’t believe in Santa. The artwork in this book is amazing—what a great Christmas story!