The Polar Express By Randolph Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of a nineteenth-century illustrator, Randolph Caldecott. This accolade is awarded to the most distinguished American picture book for children by the American Library Association. The 1986 recipient was The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, published in 1985. “In a true picture storybook, the pictures and the text work go hand-in-hand: we can’t have one without the other” (Russell, 103). Through his illustrations in The Polar Express, Van Allsburg demonstrated conventions of picture art, design and meaning, and artistic media style.
Convention of Picture Art:
Line
Illustrators use lines to convey meaning. Van Allsburg uses blurred lines to immediately instill a sense of calmness to the story. These fuzzy edges create a dream-like state. The use of horizontal lines, such as the central train that takes the children to the North Pole, also suggests a calm and
The story begins with a little boy trying to be still and quiet in order to hear Santa’s sleigh bells. As he boards the Polar Express train with the other children, the reader can almost feel the joy and anticipation filling the train car. Once the main character finally meets Santa and is gifted a bell from one of the reindeer, the reader is entranced as Santa’s sleigh finally takes flight.
Page Layout
Van Allsburg’s uses his illustrations to create the visual world of the Polar Express. The shape of the book, short and wide, focuses on the landscape of each scene. For the most part, the double-page spreads span throughout the entirety of the story with the exclusion of the last page. Van Allsburg designs accommodate the gutter and the illustrations come perfectly together. The text is very formal and consistent. The text is a basic font and appears to the very left of the page or the very right.
Artistic Media and