The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew
By C. S. Lewis
Reviewed by Katherine



I read the book The Magician’s Nephew. This book was one that my brother (again) recommended for me to read. The Magician’s Nephew is the sixth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, magic, and a bit of suspense. It is confusing in the beginning, but by the end, everything makes sense and you think, “Oh, that’s why that happened, it leads to this.” I love books that have the right amount of suspense, adventure, magic, and don’t make sense until the end.

 Digory lives with his aunt and uncle and very ill mother in London, England next door to a girl named Polly. One day, Polly wanted to show Digory her ‘cave’ she made in the rafters of the adjoined houses of her street. They wanted to venture into the uninhabited house on the other side of Digory’s house, but did not calculate the correct distance between the houses, so instead, they ended up in the attic of Digory’s house. Instead of finding a regular storage area that attics usually are, they found a box of green and yellow rings, a fire blazing, and… Digory’s uncle. Digory’s uncle seemed, at first, pretty nice towards the children, but when Polly asked if she could go home in time for supper so her parents wouldn’t worry, Digory’s uncle gave Polly a yellow ring out of the box. As soon as she touched it, she disappeared. Digory’s uncle explained to Digory that he was a magician with magic powder that his mother gave him, but he did not know what it was, but soon found out that some of the powder made things disappear and the rest brought them back, or so he thought. He gave Digory one yellow and two green rings (one for him and one for Polly). When Digory found Polly, they were in a forest that was so quiet, they could “hear the trees growing.” They tried using their green rings to get back, but it did not work. They found the forest full of shallow pools and when they wore the green rings, they could go through the pools and into different worlds. In the first pool they went into, they found a world with a red sun (which means that it is an old sun and therefore is an old world). They went into a building and found a collection of large statues and a bell with an inscription that read, “Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;/Strike the bell and bide the danger,/Or wonder, till it drives you mad,/What would have followed if you had.” So Digory rang the bell and awoke one of the statues that told Digory and Polly the story of the world and why it was deserted; there was a war and the awoken statue, Queen Jadis, destroyed all who lived on the world. After her story was finished, Digory and Polly returned to the forest via their rings, but the queen tagged along and returned with them. She was weakened by the forest, though because she performs dark magic and the forest is made up of good magic. So, when Digory and Polly headed back to their world, Queen Jadis tagged along again to regain her strength. Will Jadis perform the same magic she did in her world on Digory’s and Polly’s world?

This book was really awesome, though there are ones I have liked better. Most books can’t really compare because they are just enough different. I would definitely recommend this classic to people of all ages.