Four youngsters - Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy - are sent into the English countryside during the war to protect them from air raids. In this rambling house, they find an empty room with a wardrobe that leads to the magical land of Narnia. A Witch rules this land and keeps it locked in a winter where neither Christmas nor spring ever come. Betrayed by Edmund and aided by the wondrous lion, Aslan, they contend for the freedom and peace of this beautiful and magical place.
Impression: I remember reading and adoring this book as a child. As an adult, especially one who's gone through literary analyses classes (much to my own detriment, I admit), the experience was much different. This is not to say it wasn't good, but I wasn't as enthralled as I was as a child. Children love the storyteller style Lion is written in, but adults would rather get lost in the story and not be intruded upon by authorial insertions and asides.
Lion will remain one of those timeless, classic stories for children (words I have never expected to use for any book - literary analyses classes tend to make you dislike the words 'timeless, classic'). The story is good versus evil but with children and animals as the heroes, which would highly appeal to the young. It's told in a straightforward, simple manner that's easily understood by children and without the complexity of plot and character usually appreciated by adults. All in all, a wonderful story for children, one to be read by or to them complete with a variation of voices to bring it alive.
