Once A King or Queen of Narnia...

I have a slight obsession with the Chronicles of Narnia. I guess I always have. Sure, I like The Hunger Games and other such books, but The Chronicles of Narnia mean so much more to me than those stories. Here are the reasons why:

1. They were part of my childhood. I can't have been much older than 8 when I first picked up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe unaware that that book would become one of the stories that I hold closest to my heart. I've read the entire series through since then, some of the books multiple times, and I plan hope to read them through again this summer. It's one of those stories that you get something new out of every time you read it.

2. The way C.S. Lewis wrote the stories is phenomenal. The only way that I can describe it is that they are written the way the above picture looks. There's a magical feel about the words. They're beautiful in their simplicity. The books are written for children but, as C.S. Lewis wrote in the dedication of TLWW to his goddaughter Lucy Barfield, "some day, you will be old enough to read fairy tales again." He wrote the book for two audiences, and there are parts that older people can appreciate just as much as young children appreciate the fanciful stories and talking animals.
3. The deeper meaning that I touched on in the last paragraph: there are so many good messages in these stories. Good always triumphs over Evil. Aslan is like God. at the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he even tells the children, "There [on earth] I have another name." They actually left that line in the movie, which was surprising to me but also made me happy. At the end of The Last Battle, they all go to Aslan's Country, which is very much like heaven. The last lines of TLB are perhaps my favorite in the entire series:

4. Each book is a completely new and different story. Still, they all fit together in the end and all of the characters and events connect somehow. The characters are real and believable and it's an adventure-epic through and through.

So, that was me obsessing about my favorite series. Don't ask me what my favorite book is, because that would be like asking a mother to choose her favorite child. It can't be done. I'm not really sure what sparked this renewed appreciation of the books for me. Perhaps it was looking at everyone's pinterest boards of Harry Potter and the Hunger Games which gave me the idea to start a Narnia board. As you can see, it snowballed from there. If you haven't read the books and you haven't gathered this already, I highly recommend that you read them, even though they are supposed to be children's books!

{{All images via my Pinterst Narnia board}}

♥♥Kristin