I love this book. I first read it around age 9 and it cemented my love for fantasy fiction. All of the elements are here: a magical portal to another world where animals talk and kings and queens are made in the midst of a land that needs to be rescued from an evil queen who freezes everything and hands out this mysterious candy called Turkish Delight. The beauty of Lewis’s Narnia, however, is that while it contains morals within it, those morals are in service of the plot, so Edmund’s betrayal of his siblings and his later redemption comes across organically, not preachy or patronizing. The latter is the cardinal sin of so many books intended for young readers, who may not be sophisticated readers, but they can immediately sense when you are insincere. Lewis, wholeheartedly, was a sincere writer.

I understand the Christian underpinnings of these books now, and how some find that a problem, but I’ve never had an issue with it, perhaps because I was brought up in that tradition. And, without subtext, this work would be less. As it stands, it’s a classic for good reason: imaginative, clear prose, and a very exciting plot that begs you to turn the page.