Silver Packages (hardcover)

MY THOUGHTS ON “SILVER PACKAGES”:

I can honestly admit, I didn’t have to read the manuscript to agree to collaborate with the author, Cynthia Rylant. She’s a prolific storyteller who writes from the heart. I’d been a fan of her work since Missing May. SILVER PACKAGES is a great story with a surprise twist at the end. – Chris Soentpiet

 

AUTHOR:

“This story was inspired by two true events. One is the annual trip through the Appalachian mountains by the “Santa Train.” Each year volunteers throw packages from the train to the children living in the hills and hollows who don’t have much. The train started visiting in 1940 and has been “Santa” ever since.

And the second true event which inspired SILVER PACKAGES was my own longing as a child. I was living with my grandparents, who didn’t have much money. They took me to a place where poor children were given one Christmas present apiece. I saw a nurse kit and really wanted it, for my mother was away studying to become a nurse. But another child ahead of me chose the kit, and I didn’t get one.

The illustrator of this book, Chris Soentpiet, actually made a trip from New York City to West Virginia to see Appalachian mountains and homes. He visited Logan and Boone counties, which are very isolated and still look so much as they did fifty years ago. As a result, Chris’s paintings are both authentic and luminous.” – Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant has written many award winning books, including Missing May, winner of the Newberry Medal; Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds, which won the Boston Glove-Horn Book Award; and When I was Young in the Mountains, a Caldecott Honor book. Learn more about Cynthia on her website at:  cynthiarylant.com

 

BOOK REVIEWS:

“Rylant’s story is enhanced by the paintings of Chris K. Soentpiet, whose renderings of frosty Appalachian days and a young boy’s memories are vibrant. Together, Rylant and Soentpiet have created a story for children and parents too. That’s as it should be; books like this remind us all that the most important gifts can’t be found under any tree.” – New York Times, Sunday December 7, 1997

“Full page watercolor paintings provide panoramic views of the Appalachian countryside, with deep night-time blues and wintry colors, strengthening the sense of place. A well-rendered reflection on the importance of giving and sharing.” – School Library Journal

 

“Soentpiet’s handsome, realistic paintings captures the drama, rural landscape, and full range of human emotions. Spiritual, yet not religious, this Christmas story is recommended.”
– BookList

Silver Packages was featured in a Houston Chronicle article on December 24, 1997

 

AWARDS

American Bookseller Pick of the List 1997

 

65 YEARS OF CHRISTMAS CHEER:

The 65th annual CSX Santa Train eases through the crowd at Fort Blackmore, Virginia, on the former Clinchfield Railroad, on November 17, 2007. It will stop at the crossing so Santa and his helpers can toss toys and candy from the open platform office car to the waiting children and their families. Since 1943 the train has made its 110-mile run from Shelby, Kentucky, to Kingsport, Tennessee, bringing holiday cheer to the isolated Appalachian villages along the route. – Railfan and Railroad Magazine; February 2008