Tour Schedule for CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG NEW YORK CITY October 23 NYU School of Education keynote lecture Columbia Teacher’s College keynote lecture October 24 Barnes & Noble Upper East Side, 12PM book signing Borders Columbus Circle, 4PM book signing November 13 Books of Wonder, 12PM book signing November 14 New York Public Library, 2PM talk & book signing GRAND RAPIDS, MI November 4 Schuler Books, 7PM book signing November 5 Meijers, 12PM book signing November 6 Pooh’s Corner, 10AM book signing LOS ANGELES November 15 San Marino Toy & Bookshop, 3:30PM book signing November 15 Every Picture Tells a Story, 7 PM book signing November 16 Dutton’s Beverly Hills Books, 7PM book signing SAN FRANCISCO November 17 San Francisco Public Library, 6PM talk & book signing November 18 Kepler’s Books, 6PM book signing November 19 The Storyteller, 4PM book signing PORTLAND November 20 Portland Arts & Lectures, 11AM talk & book signing SEATTLE November 21 Seattle Arts & Lectures, 7PM talk & book signing PROVIDENCE, RI December 1 Borders Providence Place, 7PM book signing December 5 Brown University Bookstore, 2PM book signing BOSTON AREA Nov. 21-March 13 Chris Van Allsburg career retrospective at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, MA December 4 Cambridge Public Library, 2PM talk & book signing December 7 Barnes & Noble, Nashua, NH, 7PM book signing CHICAGO December 8 Chicago Public Library, 6PM talk & book signing December 9 Anderson’s Bookshop, 7PM book signing December 10 Museum of Science & Industry, 2PM book signing HOUSTON December 11 Inprint at the Alley Theatre, 2PM talk & book signing DALLAS December 12 Dallas Arts & Letters Live!, 2PM talk & book signing MINNEAPOLIS December 14 Talking Volumes Book Club, 7PM Fitzgerald Theatre To schedule an interview, please contact: Megan Butler, (631) 547-0993 fax (631) 421-7518 e-mail [email protected] Houghton Mifflin Company • 222 Berkeley Street • Boston Massachusetts 02116 www.polarexpress.com News from Houghton Mifflin Company FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Megan Butler 631/547-0993 [email protected] THE POLAR EXPRESS: Next Stop, the Big Screen In just twenty years, Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express has become a Christmas tradition as cherished as a December 24th read- ing of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. It is that rare kind of achievement in literature—a combination of powerful text and evocative imagery that perfectly captures the won- derful sense of childhood innocence. Right from its publication in The Polar Express (1985) 1985, The Polar Express struck a chord with readers. It tugs at the ISBN 0-395-38949-6 heart and gently reminds all who are touched by it of a child’s faith • Caldecott Medal winner, 1986 that gradually fades with age. On November 10, 2004, Robert • 5 million copies sold worldwide Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, and Warner Bros. Pictures will bring the • New York Times Best Illustrated Book Caldecott Medal winning story to life in a motion picture fantastical- • New York Times Bestseller ly rendered in revolutionary performance-capture CG animation. New generations—both young and old—will delight in the magic of this contemporary classic. In addition to being one of the most respected author/illustrators in children’s publishing, Van Allsburg is no stranger to the movies. Jumanji, a Caldecott Medal winner and National Book Award runner-up, was the source for the 1995 blockbuster movie starring Robin Williams and Bonnie Hunt. Zathura, Van Allsburg’s most recent book, was a New York Times bestseller in 2003 and is scheduled for movie release in 2005 from the director of Elf, Jon Favreau. The Sweetest Fig and The Widow’s Broom are also in development for the big screen. With the provocative and occasionally unsettling realities he creates (qualities rarely encountered in children’s pic- ture books), Chris Van Allsburg is not a typical children’s author, but his appeal is universal. The Polar Express is #2 in the NEA’s Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children (second to Charlotte’s Web), and it is one of two children’s books most widely held by public libraries in the United States (the other is David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work). Every December The Polar Express faithfully reappears on every national bestseller list. When asked about his inspiration for The Polar Express, Van Allsburg recalls that he had a single image in mind: “A young boy sees a train standing still in front of his house one night. The boy and I took a few different trips on that train, but we did not, in a figurative sense, go anywhere. Then I headed north, and I got the feeling that this time I’d picked the right direction, because the train kept rolling all the way to the North Pole. At that point the story seemed literally to present itself.” more Houghton Mifflin Company • 222 Berkeley Street • Boston Massachusetts 02116 www.polarexpress.com Van Allsburg’s initial images evolved into the story of a Christmas Eve when a little boy boards a mys- terious train to the North Pole. There he meets Santa and gets to choose the first gift of Christmas—a reindeer bell from Santa’s sleigh that rings only for those who truly believe in Christmas. Told as a first- person recollection and richly illustrated in oil pastels, The Polar Express is a story of the faith that children bring into the world, which sadly, but slowly, vanishes with emerging adulthood. “Lucky are the children who know there is a jolly fat man in a red suit who pilots a flying sleigh. We should envy them,” says Van Allsburg. “And we should envy the people who are so certain Martians will land in their backyard that they keep a loaded Polaroid by the back door. The inclination to believe in the fan- tastic may strike some as a failure in logic, or gullibility, but it’s really a gift. A world that might have Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster is clearly superior to one that definitely does not.” Van Allsburg began his stellar publishing career in 1979 with the publication of The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, which earned him unprecedented praise (“This is without question one of the best—and most original—picture books in years.” —New York Times) and a Caldecott Honor Award, a rare achieve- ment for a first-time author/illustrator. He barely gave critics a chance to catch their breath when Jumanji was published in 1981, followed by Ben’s Dream (1982), The Wreck of the Zephyr (1983), the teacher’s favorite The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (1984), and The Polar Express (1985). Each one was an award winner, with Jumanji and Polar earning him Caldecott Medals, the highest honor a picture book can receive, and placing him among a very small handful of authors who have earned the award twice. “The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what fascinates me,” says Van Allsburg, and that is apparent in each of his books. Many even contain pieces of his own “ordi- nary” home life—wallpaper and sculpture from his home are scattered throughout his books. His daughters were the models for the characters in Zathura, ants on his countertop were the inspiration for Two Bad Ants, his daughter Sophia’s coloring book scribbles became the plot for Bad Day at Riverbend, and Fritz, a little dog that once belonged to his brother-in-law, can be found in every one of Van Allsburg’s books. When The Polar Express movie hits theaters on November 10, millions will be introduced to the magi- cal world of a Chris Van Allsburg book. From the youngest child thrilled by the sight of the massive black steam train to adults of every age who feel their eyes water as they remember the happiness of hearing the bells of Christmas, The Polar Express is a gift of art and storytelling. ********** Images of Chris Van Allsburg and The Polar Express classic book are available to download in the for- mat that suits you best at www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/downloadsearch.cfm. Houghton Mifflin Company • 222 Berkeley Street • Boston Massachusetts 02116 www.polarexpress.com About the Author CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG Parents, educators, and children have been known to develop a kind of obsession with the books of CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG. His work appeals to such diverse audiences because it is neither simplistic nor formulaic. Van Allsburg doesn’t write with an eye toward what an eight-year-old child might enjoy, but rather what he himself would like. The only consistent element of his books is the fascinating, often mys- terious, and occasionally menacing way he approaches the question “What if?” What if a boy awoke one night to find a massive steam engine in front of his house? What if a roll of the dice on a simple board game could actually bring the game to life? What if a witch had to retire her flying broom? Chris Van Allsburg was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan with the vague idea of studying law, but the art courses he took as a lark proved more interesting than anything else he studied. In 1972, he graduated with a degree in sculpture and moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he continued his study of sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design. Shortly after he received his graduate degree, Van Allsburg began to show his sculpture in New York City galleries, where their surreal imagery quickly won him a reputation as an artist to watch. He didn’t begin drawing until 1979, when his teaching commitments at RISD and a cold studio too far across town kept him from his sculpture.