"They had forgotten the cold, empty splendor of the Snow Queen's castle like a bad dream. Grandma was sitting in God's clear sunshine and reading aloud from the Bible: 'Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.' ... And they both sat, grown up and yet children - children at heart. And it was summer - the warm, glorious summer."

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Board BookThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Board Book by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At last, a board book edition of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! Joey Chou's illustrations are beautiful, although the storytelling is only "okay." If I'm honest, my chief beef is that it begins in past tense, then switches to present tense for the rest of the book. All right, just have the whole thing be in present tense, then! Another thing is that Edmund's entire character is boiled down to "he just wants candy." I get it, this is a simplified version, not meant to be the entire book, but...I don't want my little ones thinking that that's Edmund's one and only motivation! The story could have been summarized much better overall; this seems rushed. (We are not even told who wrote this summary text. No one wants to admit to it, perhaps?) Still, I'm happy this lovely little book exists, and I look forward to using it to introduce my children to Narnia before they are ready to read the books. Probably I will show them the beautiful illustrations and summarize the story myself, rather than read the text provided here.

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