Out of all 7 of the stories in The Chronicles of Narnia series, I think “The Magician’s Nephew” is my favorite one! I never read these stories during my childhood (I have no idea why!) but I have read them several times in my recent past. This is a series that I get to share with my girls, and they like it as much as I do.
Well, maybe not as much, but they like it none-the-less!
The Magician’s Nephew takes you through how Narnia came to be, along with Aslan, the White Witch, and Professor Kirke, or Digory Kirke in this story. The first tree that gets planted in Narnia has significance in future stories as well.
Digory is staying with his Aunt and Uncle, due to his mother having a severe illness. Extremely upset by this situation, he goes in the backyard, crying, and meets the neighbor, a girl his age named Polly. It does not take long for them to decide to start exploring the attics of the townhouses they live in. They are all connected through the roof, so they can get from one end to the other.
Leave it to Digory to sneak right into his own townhouse, and right into his Uncle’s secret room. This is where things get really interesting.
His Uncle sees Digory and Polly as the perfect pair to test out his magic rings. And let me be clear on this; these are real magic rings. As soon as Polly puts a ring on and disappears, Digory quickly sees what a coward his Uncle really is. Digory has no choice but to put a ring on himself and see if he can find Polly and bring her back.
Digory finds Polly, and they begin their amazing adventures into many different worlds. One world holds the White Witch, whom Digory and Polly end up bringing right back into their world.
The uncle is thrilled, Digory is furious, and someone had better figure out how to fix this mess, and quick!
I will not go further into the story with spoilers, but this is indeed how we got our Narnia. There are many situations that will test Digory’s morals, and with the help of Aslan, he attempts to put things right again. Or as right as possible considering he has unleashed the White Witch unto the world.
This is just the beginning of one of my very favorite series, and I have read these books to my girls until they were able to read them themselves.
Do you have a favorite Chronicles of Narnia book?
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I never read “Narnia” series but I read other books by CS Lewis, I am a big fan of him!! it is a good review of this book.
I too have read a lot of his other work as well. Thanks for the nice compliment and for stopping by!
I agree! The Magician’s Nephew is my personal favorite too!
My mom read this series to me starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Then I read the series myself, and AGAIN missed The Magician’s Nephew– I didn’t know it existed. I finally discovered it last year and love how it is the beginning of the rest of the stories!
When I first got the series I think I went right to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Then I believe I read them in order 🙂
Thanks to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe I became obsessed with going through door and archways as a child in the hope that I’d get to visit a land with talking animals!! Now, I prefer The Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy partly because they have less obvious religious themes.
I also think the charactors are more rounded, and there are some very funny bits. The scene where the animals try to ‘fathom’ Uncle Andrew still has me grinning 😀
These stories definitely had me laughing. Especially Eustace!
When I was in the second grade our teacher read aloud The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. While I adore the entire series, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for that book. And for Lucy! My copies are pretty well-loved too!
I like Lucy the best too, and Mr. Tumnus and Reep-a-cheep as well!
I’ve never read the series but perhaps now I shall!
You definishould Jan! There are a couple of different orders that people choose to read them in, but The Magician’s Nephew definitely starts the series. Oddly enough, C.S. did not write them in the order you would want to read them!
This is also my favourite book in the series. I think because in lots of ways it is very different to the others 🙂