The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Four adventurous siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change... and a great sacrifice. Journey into the land beyond the wardrobe! The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, which has been captivating readers of all ages for over sixty years. This is a stand-alone novel, but if you would like journey back to Narnia, read The Horse and His Boy, the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia. )
Stats for nerds
9recommend
40mentions
39people
2009–2026years
23% recommend75% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The Canterbury Tales, Dante's Inferno, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Paradise Lost, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. That's just off the top of my head. I wouldn't totally dismiss "inspired by the Bible". As a category, I mean. On the other hand life is short, and we'll never even scratch the surface of the interesting stuff. So you do you, I guess.
- I was raised with a bookshelf with a lot of good books and they no doubt made a huge impact on me:
- Help Me Be Good series by Joy Berry. Its 28 books, each about a particular misbehavior: stealing, cheating, lying, etc. When I was a kid, if I ever did something bad, part of my punishment was that my parents would read the book about whatever I did wrong, and we reflect on why that was wrong and what I can do better. We'd also read them not as part of punishment, which always felt better since I wasn't in trouble for anything, but also helped solidify the values.
- DK makes great books for all ages, you can't really go wrong there. I always enjoyed the Illustrated Guide to World Myths. I'll probably buy some of the illustrated history books for my kids.
- My parents put a bunch of art books about famous artists on the shelf: Davinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, etc.
- Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. They also make a graphic novel of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- Dinotopia by James Gurney
There's a lot I'm leaving out but those are a good start. I'd also look for recs from mom-and-pop bookstores and your child's school if you are able.
- "The Twits" was a favorite of my younger kids. I recently read "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" to them, and they loved it. Of course we had to make Turkish Delight after learning about it in the book. Other winners include: Redwall series, The Wingfeather Saga, Artemis Foul series, The Phantom Toll Booth. But 4 is a bit young for those.
- (other readers: sorry, I know this post is going to be a bit obnoxiously long, but I didn't want to put it on a pastebin or some other external service and potentially have it disappear if someone wanted to reference it in the future. If you're not interested please feel free to collapse this!)
I actually asked my mom to compile a list of books she could remember, because a friend had kids and was getting to the age where they were starting to read too. Here's what she came up with (note, no particular order of difficulty or maturity here):
My Father’s dragon series
Where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein
A pizza the size of the Sun
Choose your own adventure books
The Great Brain
The Boxcar Children series
Captain Underpants
Roald Dahl books: The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/The Great Glass Elevator (not as good)
My Side of the Mountain
No More Dead Dogs
The Secret Garden
Bridge to Terabithia (Deals with death, a little older)
The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe
Across five Aprils (civil war historical fiction, older)
The Broken Blade (Voyageur) & Sequel
Island of the blue dolphins
The witch of blackbird pond
Johnny Tremaine (a bit older)
The sign of the Beaver
Charlotte’s Web
Because of Winn Dixie
Tuck Everlasting (sad at end)
Ruby Holler
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Treasure Island
The Pushcart War
Maniac Magee
Rascal
Frindle
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)
Mr. Popper’s Penguins (young)
Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing (Juy Blume)
Pippi Longstocking
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (young)
A Wrinkle in Time
Moccasin Trail
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
From the Mixed Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Egypt Game
The Phantom Tollbooth (young)
Holes (little older)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School (young)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Homer Price (easy reading)
The Indian in the Cupboard
Misty of Chincoteague (series)
Aesop’s Fables (young)
The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm
Redwall series
Watership Down
(I'll throw in the Discworld series too for kids that are getting a bit older! It's probably very readable for, say, an advanced 5th grader. I was tearing through all the redwall books and the Golden Compass series at that point and Discworld is probably comparable. Golden Compass wasn't finished then and The Amber Spyglass ended up being kind of a disappointment. I know I was reading Discworld by 7th grade for sure.)
- the lion the witch and the wardrobe
was recommended by my mom at a young age (1st grade?), read it a bunch of times in grade school (went to same school K-8 so had access to the same library).
I should probably reread that whole series as an adult
- Think about the Bible when reading the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, it’s well worthwhile reading it again. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/24865379
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