I totally paused!

I’m next to positive I never read this book.  It was my introduction to prequels and I remember feeling kind of cheated by this, to know that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had been read to me, then suddenly there was this earlier book.  I liked chronological order, early inklings of an obsessive mind.  So it’s quite possible I skipped this one purely out of protest.

Maybe I’m being nitpicky from the start, but I think it’s a wee bit pretentious to start a book out by saying “It is a very important story….”  Clearly the one presenting it finds it important, they wrote it!  So far, the ages of Polly and Digory haven’t been revealed to us, but they do talk quite grown up for children playing in the garden.

Two pages in and I feel like I’ve witnessed two events lifted from other, older sources.  Mr. and Miss Ketterly sound an awful lot like Matthew and Marilla in the Anne of Green Gables books.  Then Polly says “Perhaps he keeps a mad wife shut up there.”  Hello, Jane Eyre!

I’m not certain at this point if we’re supposed to think Uncle Andrew is evil or what exactly is his motivation, but it is rather cruel to trick a young girl into touching a ring and just up and vanishing like that.  However, it would seem as though we have met the Magician and his unsuspecting Nephew.

I already feel as though I’m being a bit unfair, treating this as though it should have more logic and be less obvious to an adult.  But I have to remind myself that I’m definitely not the target audience, and part of the magic of reading a book as a kid is that you feel smart enough to figure things out on your own.  And if you don’t, it’s still magical and a pleasant surprise.