Digory Kirke is sent to live with his crazed aunt and uncle in London and right away he makes a new friend in his neighbor Polly Plummer. While exploring the row of houses that they live in, the two young kids stumble into Digory's uncle's room where the uncle tricks Polly into touching a ring that makes her suddenly vanish. Digory learns that his uncle had made the rings in order to send the user to a magical world (which he dared not go himself) and he convinces Digory to use the other ring to travel into the world to find Polly (as well as explore the new world).
This book is the first book chronologically in the Chronicles of Narnia, however it was the fourth book out of the five to be published. Lewis suggested that the books be read chronologically as opposed to the publishing order, so that is what I did!
In this book we discover the origin of Narnia.
Reading Level: A
Story: 5
I enjoyed the story, but it felt far too brief. At the same time, it feels that there's too much to the story for it to be a short and simple chapter book.
Characters: 4
The characters are great and feel real.
Style: 4
Lewis's style has a nice classical feel to it, it helps the plot flow well, and allows us to really visualize Narnia.
Cover: 5
I read the series from the leather bound Barnes and Nobles collection, which is a fantastic set of books. (I used the old covers in my review that I remember from the '80s though!)
Presentation: 4
The original artwork at the beginning of each chapter is nice, however, I would really love a fully illustrated version!
Epicness: 5
It has great potential but is far too short to be epic.
Final Score: 4.5
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