Enter the world of Narnia

Reading time has been my most sacred bonding moment with my son (by that I mean since the time he was this little one snuggled up in my womb).

Recently, I decided to take our reading to another level, which means longer stories with lesser pictures.  And of course for this I must start with no other than  my all-time favorite book series, The Chronicles of Narnia. 

I learned about this series (rather late)  through a good colleague of mine in Ateneo. It's a classic for children. And, I must argue, for adults too. (That colleague of mine said that he reads the series almost every year!) 

Now, considering that this was really a far step ahead from Dr. Seuss, Clifford and Winnie the Pooh, I expected that the little lad would be bored and restless in the beginning. So I first gave him a "summary" of the story (with emphasis on the magic, the wickedness of the White Witch, and the power of Aslan). And thinking that that wasn't enough, I promised him that we will watch the movie version as soon as we finish one book.

It worked. This week, we started reading every night at least one chapter  of book 2, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My boy is so hooked, he can't wait to get to the part where Aslan comes in. At every end of the chapter, he would run to his dad to report on the story. (A good sign he is following -- which I'd doubt sometimes because of all the moving and singing while I read). He 's so into it, he's had The Silver Chair and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader lined up for the next weeks.  My oh my, he even told me tonight that he doesn't want to see the movie yet until we finish reading all the other books. 

I'm so happy. My boy has entered a whole new world of adventure. I know it's just a matter of time before we start reading Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. 

To Narnia! (And beyond!)