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Original poster

Any Narnia experts around?

45 replies

lemonandhoney · 21/11/2011 22:58

I'm reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to dd (nearly 7). She's completely captivated by it - desperate for the next chapter, engrossed in the plot and loving the way it's written. She's twigged there are others in the series so is keen to move on to them. I loved the book when I was little but remember the others as very dull - is that fair or am I missing something? I think I only got about half way through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader before giving up all together so possibly that's not representative.

So, do we carry on with them or should I try and dissuade her? She's a good enough reader to manage the language on her own but I think would struggle with some of the ideas without someone to read it with her, so suspect that telling her to read them herself isn't the answer. I have no problem reading them to her if that's a good idea but don't want to spoil the magic of this one with something disappointing.

OP posts:
whatdoiknowanyway · 21/11/2011 23:02

Nothing quite matches up to the LTWATW but I loved them all.

openerofjars · 21/11/2011 23:07

Don't read her The Last Battle, though: it is horrible: racist, depressing and not even a good read. Just bleak and nasty.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Magician's Nephew and Prince Caspian are all brilliant.

My DS is only 3 so I have a few years to wait to read them with him: I am actually quite Envy of you getting to do that now!

GrimmaTheNome · 21/11/2011 23:12

I read them all to my DD when she was about this age - except the Last Battle, which I don't like (its quite horrible about Susan).

We didn't do them one after the other, they were kept for holidays. I particularly liked Dawn Treader when I was young; DD esp fond of PuddleGlum in the Silver Chair. The Horse and His Boy doesn't have to be read in any sequence.

If I was you I'd read The Magicians Nephew next Smile

purplepidjin · 21/11/2011 23:14

Story CD's and available to answer any questions she has?

I adored them as a kid, all the racist shite went completely over my head Blush

Original poster
lemonandhoney · 21/11/2011 23:14

Fabulous, thank you. We will go with the Magician's Nephew next, I think. I've been trying to think of alternatives and have started to get incredibly excited by all the possibilities. So many classic children's books out there - it's just such a relief after the hell that was the Rainbow Fairies phase.

OP posts:
Original poster
lemonandhoney · 21/11/2011 23:15

Purplepodgin - the story cd idea is a good one. She's getting a cd player for Christmas so I might suggest that to her once we have read a few.

OP posts:
purplepidjin · 21/11/2011 23:17

It might bridge the gap between being read to and independently settling herself

I still read myself to sleep every night unless i'm so pished i can't see the words

MysteriousHamster · 21/11/2011 23:18

I liked them all but the Last Battle - by that point I found the religious stuff overdone and didn't like the whole SPOILERS 'oh we're dead via train crash but now we get to go to heaven it's so awesome!' thing.

Loved Silver Chair though I can't remember why!

VivaLeBeaver · 21/11/2011 23:22

Woah, stop right there!

Spoiler

Wtf, they were dead?

What for all the books or just that last one? Were they dead in the lion, witch and wardrobe?

Shock
Original poster
lemonandhoney · 21/11/2011 23:23

I remember now - I have read The Last Battle (none of the others in their entirety though). It was bloody awful - perhaps that's why I dislike the idea of the others.

I'm secretly hoping she will want me to read to her until we have worked out way through all my favourites - Secret Garden, Ballet Shoes, Charlotte Sometimes, all the Malory Towers and St Clares series, What Katy Did, Anne of Green Gables, E Nesbit, Little Women...she's going to have to put up with for a long time yet.

OP posts:
Alibabaandthe80nappies · 21/11/2011 23:24

Just in the last one Viva, don't panic Grin

I love The Horse and His Boy, fabulous book.

ASuitableGirl · 21/11/2011 23:27

Narnia is a sort of practice for heaven I think. Books are obviously full of Christian allegory with Aslan being put to death on a stone table and coming back to life again etc

Magicians Nephew is chronologically before lion witch and wardrobe but was written after it.

I never got on with a Horse and His Boy.

Last Battle not a great book - Susan ends up with entire dead family (their parents die in the same train crash) all because she wore nylons. And there us quite a bit of anti Muslim stuff that goes on.

VivaLeBeaver · 21/11/2011 23:34

Stops panicing

openerofjars · 21/11/2011 23:37
lisad123 · 21/11/2011 23:37

I am loving the new books I can read with dd, although she prefers to read alone Sad

HoneyandHaycorns · 21/11/2011 23:47

Shock at The Last Battle being racist and anti-muslim! Really??! How so? And what on earth happens to Susan that is so awful?

Haven't read it for about 30 years and it obviously went completely over my head at the time. DD has been working her way through the earlier ones, so need to know!!

Have a vague memory about Susan not going back because she didn't believe any more, but can't remember anything else. And WTF is that about them all dying? Shock I don't remember any of that at all! Blush

BluddyMoFo · 21/11/2011 23:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Moln · 21/11/2011 23:53

from memory they decrease in greatness and increase in christian anology throughout the series of the books

Last one being mind bogglingly awful

imho!

Get0rf · 21/11/2011 23:56

I never read the Last Battle - what happens, Susan gets killed off Hmm

I also loathed Prince Caspian.

I really liked The Magicians Nephew and Horse and his Boy, but the racism is too prevalent for me to have given them to dd to read.

Get0rf · 21/11/2011 23:58

I mean to say I liked them when I was a child.

openerofjars · 22/11/2011 00:02

IIRC the way the Muslim-esque characters are described in TLB is really eye-wateringly awful in today's terms, as is the way that their worship of another force (Tash?) is described. Basically, they are furrin and different, talk funny and have dark skin and therefore must be Badduns. And they are cruel and bloodthirsty but also cowardly.

And yup, all the good boys and girls get to live in Narnia forever after they die horribly in a train crash ("Edmund old chap, do you think that horrid jolt we felt just before we landed in Narnia was a fatal railway accident? Gosh.") but Susan is excluded for (gasp!) wearing nylons and going to parties, or in other words, for growing up.

Grr.

Clary · 22/11/2011 00:12

I love the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Personally I like to read them in the order they were written - going back to the Magician's Nephew after the early ones to explain the lamppost etc.

The Silver Chair is a bit dark and The Last Battle rather grim and sexist. But I like all the others.

Yr DD at 7 would be rather daunted actually by some of the language and concepts in the books, I agree (or my 7yo DD wd've been) so I agree, read them to her. Suitable as read-alone texts at more like 10-11 yo IMO. I read them younger but that was years ao and thus closer to the time they are set/written.

HoneyandHaycorns · 22/11/2011 00:13

Hmm, might need to do some re-reading before I let dd loose on that one then Hmm

Am a bit Shock tbh. I loved all of them as a kid, and don't recall anything untoward about them.

Will have to vet carefully, as DH is furrin, has dark skin and talks funny. Although to the best of my knowledge, he doesn't worship a force called Tash. :)

openerofjars · 22/11/2011 00:25
Grin

It's just The Last Battle and A Horse and His Boy that are dodgiest, as I recall. And check with DH re Tash! My DH talks funny too but then he is from Yorkshire. He mostly worships the Playstation.

Yyy to Dawn Treader: fab.

MysteriousHamster · 22/11/2011 00:32

Sorry Viva,

If memory serves me right (possibly not), in the Last Battle they get transported to Narnia when 'something' happens on the train. They at some point go through to an 'even more real' Narnia that's better than anything you can imagine in either the real world or normal Narnia - ie it's obviously heaven. Susan's not there cos she likes lipstick and boys now (or is she there, I can't remember).

Just to say I loved these books when I was about 8 and I was a voracious reader. I still read a lot of fantasy. I just think it's worth being aware of the Christian stuff so that you can counter it with your own beliefs if you want to.

At uni I got to write an essay about Philip Pullman vs CS Lewis (Pullman doesn't like the Christian allegory in the Narnia books), which was great fun. You'd think I'd remember more about it but I really don't!