The Chronicles of Narnia

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The Last Battle”: The King is in danger, and Narnia faces its darkest hour. Eustace and Jill must help its people fight for the future of the once-glorious kingdom. International Col 1 Cambridge International Caribbean International Early Years Collins Big Cat for International Schools International Resources Webinars Catalogues Big Cat Writing Competition Winners 2023

Epic battles between good and evil, fantastic creatures, betrayals, heroic deeds, and friendships won and lost all come together in this unforgettable world, which has been enchanting readers of all ages for over sixty years. This dramatization complements the original stories beautifully. Each scene has been carefully crafted with the sort of audio landscape you would naturally expect from any quality BBC production. I did enjoy reading these books. I'd thought them awfully dry the first time through—stuffy English children in a fairly entertaining magical land, etc... The difference this time was, I watched the 2005 movie first. The movie completely blew me away, and while reading the first book (and even the succeeding books which involve the Pevensie children) I was able to imagine those warm, courageous and yet flawed children in place of the stuffy English ones, and it added a wonderful new dimension to the story. It was enough to carry me through the boks I didn't like as much, and made me enjoy my favorites even more (those would be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy).Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil—what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. One odd little detail that I noticed this time reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader: awful cousin Eustace and his parents are Mormons. Lewis never comes right out and says it, but in addition to being snooty holier-than-thous that nobody can stand, the parents don't drink, don't smoke, and wear a funny kind of underwear. A nice little under-handed slam at a faith that loves to quote him in General Conference. There were just so many aspects of that world that made me feel, well, BAD, somehow. Guilty, or ashamed, or just plain uncomfortable. Nowadays, I recommend Miyazaki movies (especially Kiki) to every tween girl I meet to cleanse their palate of some of the more despicable Disney depictions of femininity, and I happily gift kids (and adults!) with the Dark Materials trilogy to counteract their exposure to the Narnia dogma. I may add that this collection also has a bit of extra information, right at the end, that added that perfect touch. And helped filled any voids or questions I had respecting the history, timeline, or creatures of Narnia. Really appreciated.

Spoilers) My favorite scene was at the end of The Silver Chair when Aslan and Caspian return to our world with Eustace and Jill and frighten away the bullies. Except in The Horse and His Boy, the protagonists are all children from the real world, magically transported to Narnia, where they are called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil and restore the throne to its rightful line. Starting with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the religiosity becomes noticeable, with the Witch as Satan, Aslan as Jesus, and the Emperor as God. And because of the talking, fighting animals, the fantasy seems aimed at children. I might have enjoyed it more at age 12. Author's Writing Style: 5 stars!!! It is ideally written for children in third-person POV in past tenses. The written narration is easy to read and understand (...except for its small font size which can be torturing to the eyes especially for the sleep-deprived). Pacing is fast, it's not wasting time for descriptions.

The Magician’s Nephew”: When Polly and Digory discover some magic rings, they begin the most exciting and dangerous journey of their lives – and encounter the mighty lion Aslan.… The Horse and His Boy" - Takes place during the Golden Age of Narnia, although most of the events unfold elsewhere, in the southern lands of Calormen and Archenland. Shasta, a Calormene fisherman's son, runs away when he hears his father negotiating to sell him into slavery. Together with two talking horses and a noble Calormene girl running away from an arranged marriage, he tries to get to Narnia. The book is a meditation on faith and the concept that God helps those who help themselves. It's also my favorite of the seven books. As a child in the 90s, my mother bought me BBC Radio 4's The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to listen to on a long car journey. My younger sister and I loved the dramatisation so much that we listened to it incessantly on repeat. From then on, each Christmas or Birthday brought the next instalment until we had all seven of the BBC's Narnia dramatisations. In the latter novel, closer to the end, Lewis lays out a theory of human cultures in which all of them, at their best and truest, are unique and distinct embodiments of moral and social truth, making a kind of truly multicultural mosaic in which the differences are respected and appreciated. This idea is reflected in The Last Battle, where Aslan's true country is made up of the Platonic ideal of every created country --including Calormen, where Lucy sees the towers of the true Tashbaan. So Calormen's cultural differences from Narnia can be viewed in this light --there is no reason to think Lewis' view of "shoes turned up at the toe, scimitars, suffixed phrases of praise, 'son-of' lineage declarations" was "unfavorable." The latter are found in the Bible (a book Lewis certainly viewed favorably!), and some of his writings suggest that he rather liked stately formal courtesy in social interactions. He contrasts the Calormen oral story-telling tradition favorably with English teaching practices; and if Calormen culture is called "cruel" in one place (which, Lewis would say, is a deformation caused by sin), it's also called "wise." Finally, King Miraz and his gang --who are all white-- aren't viewed as any more benevolent than the Calormen Tisroc and his toadies; the actions of both are due, not to race and nationality, but to the common experience of human fallenness. The Magician's Nephew is easily the best story of the Chronicles. First of all, it's the least overtly religious. There is a creation-of-the-world element, but it's not our world so it seems more fantastic than religious. Not only is there a veil over the religiosity, there's so much creativity in this story: the magical rings, the in-between place, the Deplorable Word, the founding of Narnia.