The creation of Narnia is told in this, the sixth published but first chronological, tale in the Chronic-WHAT?!-cles of Narnia. It is a tale of magic, adventure, and friendship.
The Magician’s Nephew
Author: C.S. Lewis
Pages: 202
Format: Paperback
Published: May 2, 1955
Publisher: HarperCollins
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Date Completed: June 16, 2024
My rating: 
Thoughts
As I’m nearing the end of the Narnia series, I’m realizing why Professor Lewis wanted this book read first. Although it was the sixth book published, this is the tale of the creation of Narnia. A couple fun notes about it. First, if you’ve ever read the first bit of Genesis in the Bible, the creation of Narnia has much the same feel to it. Also, I loved the inclusion of the lamp post that we saw in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I always kind of wondered why there was a lamp post in the middle of a forest, and now I know!
But this book goes beyond just Narnia. The two child stars here are Digory and Polly, who meet and become fast friends. Digory’s Uncle Andrew fancies himself a bit of a magician. In fact, he’s created a couple sets of magic rings that transport the wearer to someplace else (there’s a different ring that theoretically brings you back home). Uncle Andrew needs someone to test the rings and lo and behold wouldn’t you believe that Digory and Polly end up putting the rings on and going to a magical place.
But that place isn’t quite Narnia (for Narnia technically doesn’t exist yet). They wind up in a forest with a bunch of pools. There, they have to figure out exactly how these magic rings work and what the pools are for.
Eventually they end up on an adventure through different lands and accidentally awaken an evil sorceress (now who could that be?!). She follows them around until they meet up with a friendly lion who makes Narnia and helps them with their evil sorceress problem.
Ultimately, I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. Similar to other entries in this series, it didn’t knock my socks off and I’m not super into children’s, middle grade, or young adult fare. But it was fun in this book to get basically Narnia: Year One.
