This was probably the book I remembered least of the Chronicles of Narnia, but man, every one of these books is just so amazing, for the same three reasons. First, it's not just the creativity, but the whimsy that makes Narnia a world I long to escape into. Second, C.S. Lewis is incredibly astute ...
read more »

Delightful, as all the others are! This one I feel is more a pure adventure story--that is to say, seeking adventure for adventure's sake, rather than for some other purpose. In that sense there isn't so much a plot. King Caspian, whom the Pevensie children met in the book "Prince Caspian," is ...
read more »

I remember that this book was recommended to me many years ago, before I really read much high fantasy. Now that I've been getting more into it, and it was on sale in Audible, I decided to give it another try, particularly when I read the synopsis that a wizard's pride was his downfall. That seemed ...
read more »

It's odd reading these in their chronological rather than their published sequence... I've always read this one second before, but I really think it adds a lot to read them in the story's true sequence. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy star in this one as well, but they're called back into Narnia ...
read more »

I recall this being one of my favorites of the Chronicles of Narnia from way back when. Now I feel like they're all my favorite! The royal twins separated at birth trope makes an appearance in this story, but as it might have been the first time in my life I ever actually heard it, it seemed ...
read more »

My mom used to read to me when I was little. I'd curl up beside her while I embroidered pictures and patterns on a tattered old pair of my jeans... and the Chronicles of Narnia stands out foremost in my mind when I think of these memories. I grew up in church, so I knew about Jesus. But I really ...
read more »

I listened to the version that was read by Kenneth Branaugh... such a fantastic voice for this! I'm listening with new ears now that I'm writing my own chapter readers for the same age group. Action-packed, whimsical, and while the characters are good for the age range, they're not the central ...
read more »

A quick, interesting listen made far more compelling because it is (loosely) based upon a true story! I loved the author's note at the end. The story follows Elizabeth, loosely based on a possible candidate for the Revolutionary Wartime spy, Agent 355 named Betty. She is a well-to-do daughter of ...
read more »

A delightful middle grade fantasy! I was bound to love it because it's about mermaids (that always gets me). The main character, Eliza, is a pre-teen with a close relationship with her grandma, Nana Mora, who lives on a remote island, tells eccentric mermaid tales, and runs a little shop by the ...
read more »

I still really enjoyed this tale, though it did feel a bit like more of the same... it's starting to get hard to differentiate one book in this series from the next. This might have been because Lord Umbra was also the villain in this book, though he significantly upped the ante: this time his goal ...
read more »