#253 The Lion, the Dad, and the Daughter

Last fall I started reading C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia with Lanie. We read one chapter at a time, night after night, with some breaks here and there when I had an evening meeting or we had visitors at our house. Working our way through my one-volume collection, we read The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian. Then Lanie started to get a little tired of the books (I think it was mostly that her sister had started staying up later, and Lanie was afraid Mia was having fun without her while I read to Lanie), so we stopped for a while. But this spring Lanie started asking about our "special book" again. We read through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair and, finally, The Last Battle, which we just finished today.

It was a fun journey. I have fond memories of my dad reading these books with me when I was little, so it was a special treat to read them to my own firstborn. Reading chapter books was a bit of a stretch for Lanie and her attention span, but she seemed to follow along pretty well. I think she enjoyed the adventure and fantasy of these stories. Once or twice I carefully helped explain the Christian symbolism in these tales, but at this point in Lanie's life, I was generally content to help her understand the plot and appreciate whatever she picked up on her own—we can explore the deeper meanings when she's a little older. Lanie, for her part, says that Aslan is her favorite character and The Last Battle is her favorite book because of the marvelously happy ending (her dad thinks there's a little recency bias in there as well). Now it'll be on to some new, yet-to-be-determined book. Learning to read is not so far off on the horizon for Lanie. Who knows? If Lanie and I come back to The Chronicles of Narnia, she might be able to read the books herself.

Grace and peace,

BMH