The Polar Express (1986)

Houghton Mifflin published the first edition in Boston in November 1985, and it won the Caldecott Medal in 1986. The first British edition is the Andersen Press hardback, London 1986, ISBN 0 86264 143 8, a 32 page picture book; the British National Bibliography notes it as first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1985, and a later Andersen record also dates the first London edition to 1986. Andersen kept this ISBN through many reprints (listings show copies dated 1998 and 2005), and booksellers often attach the American 1985 date to it, so a listing under this ISBN proves nothing on its own: check that the imprint page gives 1986 with no later impression. No source consulted gives a print run, price or issue points for the 1986 Andersen.