Retrospective Wednesday is a meme set aside to highlight books that were published in previous years but deserve a fresh read (or reread.)
Today I am highlighting The Magician's Nephew published in 1955 by C.S.Lewis, the 6th book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. This book is the prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe so some people (and publishers) think it should be read first. But that is not the case. The reader will delight with the information they discover in this volume after already being familiar with Narnia and Aslan. C.S. Lewis had this book published 6th. That is good enough for me to keep it in the order he suggested as the author of the series.
My daughter and I are rereading through the series this summer. When we got to this volume we kept exclaiming "oh, that explains that..." or "I remember when they mentioned that is ___ book." The Magician's nephew and his friend Polly end up in Narnia on the day that it is created by the lion, Aslan. The Christian symbolism is beautiful throughout the series but very remarkable in this one.
We are not only a fan of the books but we are also fans of the movies of The Chronicles of Narnia. Two years ago this website announced The Magician's Nephew would be the next film released in the series...but that was two years ago. IMDB has the film's status as "In development." So I have no idea if it is really being made or not. I hope so. If anyone has any information on this, please let me know.
While doing all this not-very-reliable-research I did discover that The Magician's Nephew is the 2nd most popular book in the series. It really is quite exciting and very different than the other books. I encourage you to give it a try.
30 books this Summer Reading Challenge
21 / 30 books. 70% done!
I didn't know this one was being developed! I thought they'd end up just doing the ones that had the Pevensie children. I think this would make a great transition to film, though...I've really enjoyed the others so far.
ReplyDeleteI really wish I had read The Magicians Nephew last, I think it would have had some nice surprises. I read it in the order they usually have it labeled, which must be the publisher order. I'm actually surprised that it's a second favourite (I'm assuming the first is LW&W). I would have expected Voyage of the Dawn Treader or Prince Caspian (but maybe that's because those are probably MY favourites haha). I'd love to see them make all the books! I thought they did an excellent job with LW&W and had I not read Prince Caspian so many times I probably would have enjoyed that quite a bit more. It was a good movie, but not an accurate adaption and it made Caspian look arrogant which I didn't like. I'm enjoying your reviews on this series very much!
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