“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is an excellent children’s book, and even though it is not technically the first book in “The Chronicles of Narnia” saga, from a chronological viewpoint, it was the first of the seven stories written and published by C. S. Lewis, and it introduces the series’ primary characters: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

It is through the eyes of these four children—specifically Lucy and Edmund—that we see the world of Narnia, and it makes it all the more exciting, new, and fresh. Lewis obviously has certain points he is seeking to make through the work, and he has specific intentions as well, but ultimately, the story is exactly that: a story—about bravery, childlike belief, growth, and the conquering and victorious nature of love and life over hate and death!

The climax of the narrative is not even the winning of the war against the White Witch at the end of the book, but is more so, the surprising resurrection of the great lion Aslan. For Lewis, it is not a battle fought by children—perhaps, an echo of the Children’s Crusade, and even of the World Wars?—but the defeat of death itself that is to be praised and revered. Lewis beautifully explains this profound spiritual and psychological truth through the mouth of Aslan when he says, “Death itself...start[s] working backwards.”