The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Read Aloud Thursday

I was very excited to be able to share the full and complete story with Bookworm1 this year. At age 4 1/2 he seemed ready to be able to understand and thrill in the story I love so much: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We've spend plenty of time with Narnia picture books and we've watched video clips of the movies (the parts without any curiously disturbing mythological creatures) and we'd even made it a few chapters into the real book a time or two. This year I thought he could handle the story in its entirety and so we read it. And we loved it. Both of us.

Bookworm1 was familiar with the characters and general storyline already so this wasn't terribly new to him or disturbing. Instead it was fun. Particularly because I have been collecting Narnia read-along toys and he was allowed to play with these things while we read the story:



* I found this doll's wardrobe at Goodwill and thought it was PERFECT for Narnia play! Lucy and the Stone Table were gifted to us (by my brother) and the other figures are Safari Ltd. items.

I confess that I am completely unable to read the Narnia series without reading stuff into it. I walk away from each adventure with practical life applications and this read through was no exception to me. I did discover that it is a lot harder to read the books outloud because I find them so deeply meaningful and impacting that I spent the later half of the book trying not to sob my eyeballs out while reading to him. He kept glancing over at me while I was reading about Aslan coming back to life and playing with Susan and Lucy.

I read the following passage which seemed to have the greatest impact on both of us and I'll explain why in a minute.

"Oh, children," said the Lion, "I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!" He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hill-top he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one had ever had except in Narnia, and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.
"And now," said Aslan presently, "to business. I feel I am going to roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears."
And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind. (Chapter 15, Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time)

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Bookworm1: "Mommy, what's wrong?"
Mommy: *sniffling* "This is my favorite part."

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting!? (1 Corinthians 15:55)

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A little while later I was in the other room with the baby when I heard a great deal of roaring going on in the living room. I walked into the room with the boys to discover Bookworm1 holding on to the lion figurine, with Lucy on top, roaring and running around the room. My heart warmed.

I love seeing Bookworm1 engaging with powerful stories. He has reached the age where he does mimic certain of his favorite movies or his favorite books and so I've begun to realize the great importance of filling his mind with good and noble adventures that will stir both his heart and his passions towards Christ. He is making memories and acting out what is being placed inside of him and I hope that a love for Narnia and story grows in his heart. It is such a pleasure to share Narnia with him and I hope he remembers these first moments inside this magical land.

"And that is the very end of the adventures of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia." (Chapter 17, The Hunting of the White Stag)

The story ended with a huge smile on his face and mine.