Guest blog: Narnia, Harry Potter, and other true classics
It is unseemly to envy our children, and I usually don鈥檛. I don鈥檛 begrudge them their youth, their energy, their innocence. My jealousy stings just a little, instead, at those lovely bedtime moments where I read my 7-year-old 鈥淭he Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.鈥�
He is intrigued by Lucy鈥檚 foray into the wardrobe, stunned by Edmund鈥檚 treachery, enthralled by Turkish Delight, fearful when Aslan dies on the great stone table. When Lucy鈥檚 siblings hide in the wardrobe, he bursts with gloating excitement as he deduces that they too are finally landing in Narnia. We are three chapters from the end, now, and he truly does not know what will happen next.
The first time it struck me what a gift this is 鈥� the gift that you receive the first time you get to read a true classic 鈥� was actually a few years before he was born, as I tore through the newest Harry Potter installment. My childhood favorites 鈥� Narnia, of course; Madeleine L鈥橢ngle鈥檚 "Time Trilogy"; Tolkein鈥檚 "Lord of the Rings"; Susan Cooper鈥檚 鈥淭he Dark Is Rising鈥�; Lloyd Alexander鈥檚 "Prydain" 鈥� had been read and re-read so many times. With the Harry Potter books, for the first time in many years, I felt a classic in progress, one where I could once again experience the story afresh 鈥� until that series, too, finally ended.
鈥淚s Narnia like a whole different world?鈥� my son asked as we read that gateway book tonight. 鈥淎re there other worlds like it?鈥� He has no idea how many there are, or how all too soon he鈥檒l know them all.
Rebekah Denn writes at .
