Narnia is coming!
Walden Media and Disney Pictures will release “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” in movie theaters on December 9. So, you’ve got less than two months to read the book, if you never have before. This is so incredibly exciting! HarperCollins publishers own the rights to the books, and I read an article that said they’re printing 170 C.S. Lewis-related book titles in more than 60 countries — 140 related to ”The Chronicles of Narnia.” You can read the whole article here.
I was first introduced to Narnia in the fourth grade. One of the TV stations presented “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” and our teachers asked us to read a script in class. I remember being fascinated at the thought of entering a whole new fantasy world through a wardrobe. Once I entered, I fell in love with the lion hero, Aslan.
On my tenth birthday, I invited the girls from my gymnastics team over for a spend-the-night party, looking forward to all the birthday trinkets they would give me. Instead, one of the moms took it upon herself to have all the girls pitch in and buy me a huge, stuffed lion. Of course, I named him Aslan, and he stood solemnly in a corner of my room all through my childhood years. Thankfully, he even survived my massive purging when I “grew up” and left home for college.
Now, my kids love that big old lion, although my younger daughter used to be scared of him. A couple of years ago, we lived in a small rental house where our three older kids all shared one bedroom. Every night, my husband read The Chronicles of Narnia out loud. They all piled around him, listening to every word, their imaginations expanding with each sentence. He read the whole series of seven books from the same boxed set he owned in boyhood.
When it came time for my then three-year-old daughter to choose a Halloween costume, she promptly said, “I want to be Aslan.” So, we found her the cutest fluffy lion costume and painted her face with whiskers. At her preschool costume parade, I noticed the other girls in her class all marched in sparkling princess or ballerina costumes. But Aslan paraded proudly among the shimmer, tail dragging behind.
That costume has been packed away in our basement until yesterday afternoon. At first, the girls fought over the golden princess gown. They both wanted to wear the dress Nana made from extra curtain fabric. Then my younger daughter (now five) decided she’d be Aslan again. Of course, the costume stopped at her hips instead of her knees, but her face peeking out from the caramel fur was too adorable!
They wore their costumes all afternoon and into dinner. Aslan sat at our table, dining on a plate of spaghetti, trying not to get any red tomato sauce in [her] furry mane. At bedtime, she wanted to sleep in her lion costume but decided she’d get too hot.
So, the true lion king is here at our house now. And will be everywhere soon.
Narnia’s coming. Are you ready to enter into the wardrobe?
