The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade fantasy
• Originally Published: 1950
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 940L; grades 5-7
• Structure/Length: 17 chapters; approx. 208 pages; approx. 4 hours, 21 minutes on audio
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: During World War II, siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are sent to live with a professor in the countryside for their safety. On a rainy day, they discover a portal to Narnia, where they are embroiled in an adventure of a lifetime as they battle to free Narnia from a witch.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Animal death; war and battle; violence; death; sexism           

C. S. Lewis, Author

• Bio: 1898-1963; British writer, scholar, and Anglican theologian; went by the nickname “Jack” after his dog Jacksie died; loved anthropomorphic animal stories as a child; Second Lieutenant with the Somerset Light Infantry during World War I; served in the local Home Guard during World War II; had academic position in English literature at Oxford University and Cambridge University; close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien; active in the Oxford literary group called the Inklings; his faith greatly influenced his work; has a wide and long-lasting legacy in the form of honors and statues and film adaptations
• Other Works: The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933); Out of the Silent Planet (1938); The Screwtape Letters (1942); Prince Caspian (1951); Till We Have Faces (1956)