Aslan (The World of Narnia Series) [Paperback]

Frederic Thomas (Author), Deborah Maze (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1999 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Narnia

Gloriously, richly detailed artwork brings the creatures and land of Narnia to life in this third exciting title in the World of Narnia picture book series.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Clive Staples Lewis, born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1898, was Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford and later was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University. He wrote many books in his lifetime, but The Chronicles of Narnia are his only works for children. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (May 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006443527X
• ISBN-13: 978-0064435277
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,271,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I Have To Agree..., December 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aslan (The World of Narnia Series) (Paperback)

...with the negative reviews of these books. For one thing, the illustrations, while many and large, really aren't that great, and don't remotely hold a candle to Pauline Baynes' original illos *or* the Dillons' covers for the late releases of the books. (I'm a professional graphic artist who started out doing children's illustration, and I have a 6 year old daughter and 7 year old son, and I still hold an interest and look at quite a bit of it.)

I was a little angry the first time I saw these in a bookstore, but mostly, I was just sad. Like others, here, and many of my generation, I had "the Narnia books" read to me, all of them in a row, before I could read, when I was four-five and my sister two-three. Neither of us was bored by them, nor were we confused, and nearly thirty years later, we're still in love with the books and have read them umpteen times.

In addition, I have to agree with the customer from Georgia, about the obvious editorial bias shown in these "adaptations." I'm not a Christian myself, but why on earth would you want to read Narnia with all of Lewis' deep, sincere (and however you feel about the particulars, pretty reasonable) faith leeched from it, the very thing that gives it its lasting power? Aslan-as-Christ, the heart of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, is so glossed over in the picture books that it isn't surprising "Georgia" just plain missed it. In that sense, and in a small way, these books remind of of that attempt at sanitizing Huckleberry Finn in the mid-eighties. (As if one of the most powerful and lasting anti-racist works of a shamfully racist period *needed* sanitizing...)

I have kids of my own, now, and I've observed other parents, and...the "dumbing down," over the course of my lifetime, of children's fiction doesn't have anything to do with kids or what they want or what they can handle. It's all about parents who feel like their lives are somehow more busy, pressured and consumed than those of any other parents in history. This is nonsense--if anything, my contemporaries, and late-parenting Baby Boomers I know, have *more* time, more money, less pressure all around than my blue-collar family had. Parents I know have endless time and energy to spend on their own pursuits, including, most bizarre to me, among my "Gen-X" peers, obsessing over and collecting the works of obscure musicians, the detritus of our childhoods (Brady Bunch/Disney/whatever memorobilia, old video games, etc.), and most astoningly, buying and playing expensive video games, which are almost entirely directed at adults, now, not children. When it comes to reading with their kids, though, there seems to be a great demand for Cliff's Notes versions of *everything.* God forbid that you should spend more than fifteen minutes reading your kid a book or anything.

These books weren't created for kids. They were created for lazy parents. They, and other books like them, are a stain on this wildly-educated, economically properous, but wildly unfocused time, and any parent who passes up "the real deal" in favor of these Happy Meal versions of C.S. Lewis should be ashamed of himself or herself.

These are worse, much worse, than those awful Scholastic series of garbage novels, and I hate those an awful lot. (Anybody else remember when Scholastic's goal was to get *real books* into kids hands, cheap, not sell them market-priced editions of the juvenile equivalent of Dean R. Koontz and Danielle Steele?) END

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The World of Narnia Series, January 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Aslan (The World of Narnia Series) (Paperback)

While I eagerly anticipate the day when my 2nd grade children can read the "originals" themselves, these books offer an educated alternative to Pokemon and similar cartoon-based book series on the shelves these days. They enjoy the stories, study the illustrations and have developed a keen interest in the characters of Narnia.

I am not opposed to them reading a "Happy Meal version" of a classic at this age because in school they are encouraged to read to themselves, not listen while I read to them. They return to this series often because they enjoy it and I can't think of a better reason for a child to read a book. There is plenty of time for them to read the full series, and I'd rather they read it when they can absorb all of Lewis' symbolism. All of the books in this new series are a terrific introduction to C.S. Lewis' classic epic. I recommend them.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Let's raise the bar, parents!, April 4, 2000

By 

Mother of Sons "hedgemint" (Braintree, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aslan (The World of Narnia Series) (Paperback)

My five and seven year olds sat mesmerized on either side of me as I read all seven of the original books to them within a four week period. They weren't bored, didn't miss the pictures and seemed to "get" much more of it than I'd thought they would. The videos are wonderful, but I wouldn't let them see them until they had finished all the books, because what they came up with in their imaginations was infinitely superior even to those. No, they didn't understand it the way a teenager or a 47 year old would (I was thrilled to read the series for the first time myself) but they now have something real on which to build, something to which they can return in their imaginations, and something to demonstrate to them what "real" writing is. Please don't cheat your children...or yourselves.