Scooter Chronicles

This afternoon I found the time to finish “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, the first book of C. S. Lewis’ famed “Chronicles of Narnia”. I am sure many of you have seen the trailers for the movie version. That was one of two reasons I read it. I wanted to before seeing the movie (though I knew the story anyway). And this was the book that we chose for our December edition of the Brew and Book Club.

The story is about two brothers (Peter and Edmund) and two sisters (Susan and Lucy) and the time they spend at Professor Kirke’s house. He lives in a huge house that is filled with many things, especially books. But there is one room that has only a wardrobe. Lucy decides to go into the wardrobe and finds a world beyond the fur coats inside. And that world is Narnia. Her siblings don’t believe her, but eventually when trying to hide from Mrs. MacReady and her visitors, they all stumble into Narnia and their adventure begins.

For all practical purposes, this is a children’s story, and reads like such. But like many children’s stories, it still captures the imagination. Sure, it wasn’t as gripping as many books that I have read, even ones that I might not have totally enjoyed. But had I read this when I was 10 years old, I probably would have fallen madly in love with it.

There is a bit of symbolism in this story, as are most if not all of Lewis’ work. That symbolism is directed by his devout Christian faith. But it is not all peaches and cream. For a children’s book, with Christian symbolism, there is still much death and destruction, much to chill a child’s bones while reading. Though the descriptions cut short, even Lewis saying within the text of the story that he doesn’t wish to discuss or describe further, for this is still a children’s story.

I plan on giving a copy of this to Nigel when he grows up. Hopefully he will love reading as much as I do. And hopefully he will find something in this story that touches him and directs him further in his life.