Book Review: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

My job at the Marion E. Wade Center, during my college years, required hosting tours for small groups of school children. I loved showing them the actual inspiration for the wardrobe. It bore a sign declaring the Wade Center free of any legal obligation associated with children who disappear into the wardrobe. I needed an audio book for my endless May car rides (lots of ferrying people here and there while we were down to one car). What a joy to return to the Narnia series with the ever-popular The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie live with a professor in the country during the Blitz. While enjoying a game of hide-and-seek, they enter a wardrobe and a land of imagination full of satyrs, dwarves, centaurs, and giants. In Narnia, the White Witch, who has overtaken the land and brought endless winter, wants to capture them. But, Aslan is on the move. He, alone, can save the children and restore them to their rightful places as kings and queens in Narnia.

Though Lewis had no children, he did a fine job of tapping into child-appealing storytelling mode. I have fond memories of reading this to my two younger sons when they were small. We didn't complete the whole series (their attention spans were typical of this generation), but I enjoyed sharing this snippet with them. I will have to see if my library has more of the series in audio form.