Sunday 20 February 2011

The Magicians Nephew

Magician's Nephew (Puffin Books)

I read this entire series when I was a child and since then read this book an The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe at the time that TLTWTW came out at the cinemas. The picture on this is the same as the one on my copy but it is a different edition. I still have the copy that I was given as a child, in fact it has my name written on the inside cover in very childish writing in pencil and also in slightly more mature writing in pen!
I never realised that there was any controversy over the order of the books. I do remember that when I read the books the first time it was a bit of a lightbulb moment when I realised that that was the start of Narnia and that the book actually had anything to do with TLTWTW. (I may have been a bit dim lol)
I really enjoy these books so much, since even though some scary and reasonably thought provoking stuff happens they are still so innocent and easily read. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series since their are a few that I dont really remember much. 
As far as this book goes, I think it is a really good introduction to the series. I love the relationship between Polly and Diggory they are like two old souls in childrens bodies. Even though he is not really a hero I like Uncle Andrew. It always seems to me like he is trying to be the big, clever, powerful magician but is actually quite happy that he isn't. But when it does work it really shocks him. This is the first time that I have picked out that he is actually a bit of an alchoholic, I never really noticed it much in my previous reads. 
What was also much more obvious to me this time was the strong similarities to Christianity in the book, the whole Good vs evil thing. It may also be though that I am more aware now of what a devout Christian C.S Lewis was.
Favourite scenes: There are many!
  • Polly and Diggory meeting each other
  • their first meeting in the wood between the worlds
  • the charn scenes especially once Jadis comes on the scene
  • the scenes where we see the aftermath of Jadis roaming about London
  • the scenes with Uncle Andrew and the animals. I love the idea of him being planted and watered
  • Not really a scene, but I also picked up a lot more of the humour in this book than I have the last times and I just loved how he kept talking about the housemaid's good day with all the comings and goings.
My original plan with this book was to spread it out over the entire two weeks, however I forgot that 14 chapters in 2 weeks was 1 chapter per day not 2, as a result I read it much quicker, so have been desperate to start the next one, which I will do tonight. (I know that there is no law to say I cant read it before the correct dates,  but want to stay with the program!)

5 comments:

Read Aloud Dad said...

Thanks for the review!

I'm looking forward to reading The Magician's Nephew myself.

When I was younger I only read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I loved it to pieces.

Read Aloud Dad

Whitney said...

I had to restrain myself from pushing on ahead with the series too!

I didn't catch the religious references or adult humor when I first read them either, so not dim at all. The Magician's Nephew reminded me of a Pixar film, made for both children and adult's entertainment.

Bittner said...

I enjoyed reading your review. I posted about the animals treatment towards Uncle Andrew in my post as well! Those were some of my favorite scenes in the whole book. If you can ever get the audio versions of these books they are fantastic! My mom got them for me for Christmas a couple of years ago and Kenneth Braunnah reads the Magician's Nephew, something about the way that Lewis writes, like what you were saying how he includes the little bits about how the housemaid was having such a big day, all those things for me just beg for this book to be read out loud!

Any way if you want to check it out my post is at

http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/2011/02/abducted-by-magicians-nephew.html

dddeeebbbzzz said...

I love the Narnia books. A friend of mine named her children Diggory and Polly. Hope you are well. I've been away from blogging for over a year but now I can blog from my phone it's easy to start up again!!

Birdie said...

I do remember that when I read the books the first time it was a bit of a lightbulb moment when I realised that that was the start of Narnia and that the book actually had anything to do with TLTWTW. (I may have been a bit dim lol)

I had no idea either, so at least we're a bit dim together!

Like Whitney, I had to really hold back from immediately re-reading TLTWTW again.

I really despised Uncle Andrew at first...what kind of jerk gets kids to do his dirty work? But, I found him so pitiful and comical later that he redeemed himself in my eyes.