The Magician’s Nephew

From The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Magician’s Nephew is a tale of two young children, Diggory and Polly, finding their way into a mysterious world after sneaking into Uncle Andrew’s study. After learning that Uncle Andrew claims to be a magician, he gives them magic rings. With them, they find their way into more than one world and eventually find a world that is only hours old, Narnia.

I watched and loved the movies when I was a kid and was surprised that this story was not part of what made it into the movies. In a way, this book works as a prequel to the adventures in the following books. Having been published in 1955, there are a lot of stylistic differences from the novels I read today, but this story held true to the development and growth of characters. The descriptions were well-written, and I felt like I could truly see Narnia come to life. I will most definitely be reading the rest of The Chronicles of Narnia series.

Thesis Note: One thing that stood out to me was Polly saying the phrase, “I’m game if you are.” This phrase was repeated when Diggory questioned whether she wanted to do something, such as opening a door to an unknown place. This phrase is still used today and made me think about how my characters can use different phrases from different time periods as they wish, especially since my book is entirely set in another world. I can even create my own phrases or mix up others that have been used before to add more depth and uniqueness to my characters.