Author celebrates 'Polar Express' anniversary in Naperville

When Chris Van Allsburg meets small children at book signings for “The Polar Express” that he wrote and illustrated 30 years ago, they often ask whether the little boy in the book is him, and if his train ride to the North Pole really happened.

Van Allsburg always says yes.

“It incorporates a lot of things that were profound to me as a child thinking about Christmas. The book has a large hunk of autobiography in it,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I guess it's down on the page in a way kids relate to.”

That might explain why the award-winning “The Polar Express” has become a Christmas classic, and why publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was willing to put out a special 30th anniversary edition.

In an event sponsored by Anderson's Bookshop, Van Allsburg will be in Naperville to discuss and sign copies of the new edition at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, in North Central College's Pfeiffer Hall, 310 E. Benton Ave. Tickets are available from Anderson's, 123 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville.

The new design includes an expanded interior, author's note, audio read by Liam Neeson and golden “All Aboard” ornament. The well-known drawings illustrating the story are the same, but the borders around the pictures have been removed.

“I think, in some ways, they are more captivating in the larger size,” Van Allsburg said.

“The Polar Express” has gone through many printings, but Van Allsburg said it is rare that a publisher will go to the expense of a redesign.

“I think it's a pretty handsome production,” he said.

Inside, the story is enchantingly the same. A small boy lies awake one Christmas Eve when he sees a train on his front lawn. The conductor invites him on board and he finds a train full of children in their pajamas traveling to the North Pole.

They travel to the center of Santa's city, where they find Santa and his elves gathered for the giving of the first gift of Christmas. The boy is chosen to receive the first gift, and asks for one of the silver bells from the harness of Santa's reindeer.

The boy slips the silver bell into his bathrobe pocket and re-boards the train as Santa's sleigh takes off at the stroke of midnight. But on the way home, he finds, to his dismay, that the bell has fallen through a hole in his pocket and is lost.

Then Christmas morning, after all the presents are opened, his little sister finds one more small gift with the boy's name. Inside is the silver bell with a note from Santa. The boy and his sister are enchanted by the sound of the bell, but their parents cannot hear it. Over the years, his friends and even his sister lose the ability to hear the bell, but even after the boy has grown old, the bell still rings for him “as it does for all who really believe.”

Van Allsburg said the book speaks to the coming-of-age when children lose their belief in fantasy.

“That Christmas when they start to wonder is a poignant and also melancholy kind of Christmas,” he said, “Living in a world that includes (make-believe) is more interesting than living in a world that doesn't.”

So maybe it is the ability of “The Polar Express” to recapture that sense of wonder that explains its appeal. The book has sold 12 million copies worldwide, according to the book's website, and has been translated into 13 languages.

Recreated Polar Express train rides are popular in England, as they are in the United States, Van Allsburg said. In 2004, the book was turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks.

Van Allsburg meets parents in their 30s who had “The Polar Express” read to them when they were young and are now bringing their children to his signings. Young adults in their 20s tell him that the reading of “The Polar Express” around the Christmas tree is still part of their families' tradition.

“Along with making me feel very old, it's pretty heartwarming,” he said.

Van Allsburg has even met a woman at one of his signings who told him how she used to read “The Polar Express” over and over to a young neighbor boy during the holidays until he moved away. Years later, she learned that he was a soldier serving in Iraq and sent him a care package that included her old copy of “The Polar Express.”

The young man was a bit embarrassed to receive a storybook until his barrack mates learned what he had and asked him to read it aloud — over and over just as it had been read to him as a child.

“I found that moving,” Van Allsburg said.

Van Allsburg said he was familiar with trains as a child growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and, later learned, that he even played on an engine that resembled the one in “The Polar Express.” The story itself began with a picture of a train in his mind after he became a children's book writer and illustrator.

“I felt there was a story there,” he said. “I thought if I could find out where the train was going, I could know what the story was. Of course, I did find out where the train was going because I got on.”

If you go

What: Chris Van Allsburg with the 30th anniversary edition of “The Polar Express”

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18

Where: North Central College's Pfeiffer Hall, 310 E. Benton Ave., Naperville

Tickets: Available at Anderson's Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville

Info: (630) 355-2665 or andersonsbookshop.com