May 21, 2004
Lions, Ogres, and Wooden Puppets, Oh My!Posted by Bryan
This quiz, from News from the Great Beyond:
The sixth book written, you're nevertheless the first chronologically. You not only describe the creation of Narnia and tell where the White Witch, the lampost and the wardrobe came from, you get to bounce between worlds with the help of Uncle Andrew's weird magic rings.
Find out which Chronicles of Narnia book you are.
I'm reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to my children right now. A chapter or two a night. I selected it first of the seven (even though its #2 in the series) because it being the most popular, I wanted to see if they would connect with the story before I committed to the whole rest.
They have totally connected. Kaylyn listens with keen interest, occasionally interrupting with "I hope Susan's okay!" and "Why is Edmund so bad?" Cotter cuddles with his sister every time the story takes an adventurous turn and now has asked if he should rename his stuffed lion from Leo to Aslan. I purchased The Magician's Nephew a couple days ago so we can visit the prequel as soon as we've finished this tale.
I also purchased Ella Enchanted for Kaylyn, but haven't decided if I'm going to let her read it yet. The story starts off with the mother dying...kinda dark, at least for my taste, for my seven year old. Maybe I'm being prudish (or whatever the right word is), but I still feel the responsibility to preview what goes in front of my kids.
With that in mind, we're all going as a family to watch Shrek 2 tonight. We recently purchased the first Shrek on DVD, which came accompanied with the 16-minute 3-D short. Watching Cotter watch the multi-dimensional movie was better than the movie itself. There was one scene where a spider drops down, and I thought my boy was going to fall off the couch the way he spastically jolted out of the way. Comic relief, indeed. By the by, I've already been cautioned about the sequel's cross-dressing bartender and the gender-identity-struggling Pinnochio.
Funny story -- my mom once got the kids a DVD about the wooden puppet who only wanted to be a real boy. We put it in and they were talking Spanish. We tried to fix it, figuring the dubbing track was messed up. Upon further review of the DVD cover, we discovered that Gigi had in fact purchased Pinnocho, la historia de la pequeña marioneta de madera que deseó solamente ser un muchacho verdadero.
To this day, we still don't understand what that movie is saying. But who needs words in the Mother's Tongue when you've got a psychedelic mishmash of wales, donkeyboys, foxes, talking crickets, blue fairies and growing wooden noses?
May 21, 2004 2:56 PMIf you want my opinion (and I don't blame you if you don't), don't read the Magician's Nephew next. Read the books in the order Lewis meant for them to be read. I think the Magician's Nephew is about sixth of seven. If I remember the order right, you want Voyage of the Dawn Treader next.
The Magician's Nephew is pretty weird and hard to understand until you've been a little more Narnianized.
You are giving your children a gift that will last for a lifetime. Craig (at almost 22) and I still talk with enjoyment about reading those books together when he was little.
Posted by: Randy McRoberts at May 22, 2004 11:22 AM