Last summer, we gave DD a full set of the Chronicles of Narnia by Clive Staples Lewis. Both Fiona and myself vividly remember our own reading of these books, especially ‘The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe’ which we remembered with great affection.
Turns out that perhaps our memories as die-hard Narnia fans not quite so accurate because we both realized that either we had forgotten large parts of some the books or there were books in the series we hadn’t actually read.
Whilst Fi vividly remembered The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – delighting in introducing the character of Reepicheep to the kids – both of us did not remember the (chronologically) first book in the series; The Magician’s Nephew. And in fact, I could only dimly recognize events from Dawn Treader myself and when it came to The Silver Chair, the story was a complete mystery to me. Oh well, still they’re going to fall in love with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of course, right?
We planned that we would read out the books to the kids and started with bedtime readings until it was clear that the level of concentration needed was not available to the kids at that time of night. Now we’re almost through the penultimate book of the seven volumes and apart from one book – LWW which Fiona read – I’ve read them all.
It’s been a wonderful experience, with Fiona there as part of the audience reliving her youth, and the kids loving the stories. But what surprised and kind of disappointed me and Fiona was the relatively cool reception LWW was given by both kids. They knew this book was me and Fi’s favourite, as we’d bigged it up with them for ages before she got the books. And they certainly enjoyed the story. But it never compared to the MN. And, as we’ve raced through the other books (The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader and now The Silver Chair) the LWW places lower and lower in their rankings.
Having absolutely loved The Magician’s Nephew they now compared LWW to it poorly. In theory, LWW should kick ass. It has a larger cast, more action, very strong and lovable characters such as Aslan, Mr Tummnus and the Beavers. And of course, it has the White Witch one of the villains of children’s literature.
But I came to realise that MN trumps LWW because it was the kids’ first experience of Narnia. By the time they started LWW, they had already experienced the White Witch – as arguably the much more dangerous and cunning Queen Jadis – and they had already met Aslan as the creator of Narnia. So, despite the reputation of LWW and their parents’ fervent hopes, MN is what got them hooked. It reminds me of something a Classics teacher told me about the difference between the works of Homer; you’ll enjoy the Odyssey more because it takes you on a bigger ride but you’ll realise that the Iliad is the better work.
Be prepared for the kids to form their own opinions.