Quick - If I'm going to read Chronicles of Narnia, which story do we do first?

[Renthead Mommy]

Okay, I need this quick, the kiddo is waiting for this before he goes to bed soon. I said I'd read C of N aloud (gag! What was I thinking?) The husband's copy has all the stories in one book, starting with the Magican and his nephew. The single story copy I got from the library is Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and says it's Book 1. And the library book lists the magician one as like number 6 or something.

Why are they in such different order, and which one do I need to read first?

And can I pay someone to read this for me? Please??? I'm so not into this and Tolkien stuff. The things we do for offspring.....

Thanks

[Michelle in MO]

usually starts with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but the British version begins with The Magician's Nephew. Chronologically, the British version or ordering system makes more sense to me. :)

[Lorna]

As far as I know The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published first and The Magician's Nephew was written as a prequel. I would start with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and then read The Magician's Nephew .
Sympathy with your read-alouds; I am breathing a sigh of relief that I have managed to steer bed-time away from being exclusively Dianne Wynne Jones!

[Renthead Mommy]

Thanks! We don't normally do books before bed. I never wanted bedtime to be dependent on having to hear a book first. Ususally it's just "okay, it's bedtime" and he just goes to bed. But since it was only going on 7, and he was coloring in his room he wanted me to read him something. And he's seen the movie with the kids next door, and knows they are reading it together, so I sort of got stuck with it.

It's one of those things I was really hoping to pawn off on his father. Now LotR is totally going to be his father! I refuse to read any of those. Especially aloud. It was bad enough I had to sit through the movies!

Can you tell I'm just so really NOT into that type of thing? LOL!

[K-FL]

I agree w/Michelle (& the Brits.) Even when I read them myself as a kid, I thought the Nephew should be read first. I like the read series chronologically so the background is in place.:)

[T Baer]

C.S. Lewis after he had written the other book(s) put ,"The Magician's Nephew" at the beginning of the series. If you are going for familarity or what's recognizable to instill a greater interest, then you might want to go with ,"The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe".
Most of you already know this but "The Magician's Nephew" is coming out on the big screen in May. I think there's a trailer on-line if you want to look.

[prairiegirl]

C.S. Lewis after he had written the other book(s) put ,"The Magician's Nephew" at the beginning of the series. If you are going for familarity or what's recognizable to instill a greater interest, then you might want to go with ,"The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe".
Most of you already know this but "The Magician's Nephew" is coming out on the big screen in May. I think there's a trailer on-line if you want to look.

Oh Man! I thought it was Prince Caspian that was coming out in May. We have been reading that in preparation for the movie. Now we have to read The Magician's Nephew and that kind of takes us out of order. sigh


Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[Ellie]

I'm going to go with the order in which they were published. It was never a problem for my dh or me or my dc that the Magician's Nephew came "last." It never ocurred to me, even after reading the series the first time with the Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe first, that the Magician's Nephew should come first.

[elegantlion]

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/In-What-Order-Should-the-Narnia-Books-Be-Read-.id-3205,subcat-LANGUAGE.html

Here's a link for info on the different orders. We opted to go with the publication date order, Lion,Witch & the Wardrobe first. I am glad we did as Magician's Nephew explains away some of the magic and would have taken away some of the "fun" for us.

Prince Caspian is the movie being made. Here's a link to more information.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499448/

HTH

[Carol in Cal.]

I chose to start with LWW for DD.

This is because it is much more engaging and better written than "The Magician's Nephew" IMO, and it introduces characters that are later alluded to in TMN (even though it is a prequel, it is pretty apparent that it was not written first.) Also, LWW has the clearest and most complete analogy with Christianity of any of them, and even my Dd at 4 or 5 could find it once I clued her to watch for one. LWW is foundational for the series, and it also stands alone--which none of the rest of the books could really do.

So we started with LWW, and then went back to TMN. I can't remember whether we then reread or just resummarized LWW, but then we read the rest of the books in their chron order.

DD found "The Last Battle" very sad. And when Reepicheep went over the edge of the world, she was quite sad--she did not see that as noble, as the author clearly did. She saw it as a tremendous loss, like a Greek tragedy or something. Interesting POV.

[ELaurie]

Don't panic - it's Prince Caspian. Here's a link (http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1355&dl=14478175)to the trailer.