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Hi,

Does anyone know which grade The Chronicles of Narnia would work best in as a read-aloud story? I remember reading Carrie's post that talked about emphasizing Bible history and American history first and postponing studying ancient cultures because of the issue of explaining mythology and barbaric activities... I was wondering if that applied to Narnia, too, with all the Fauns and Dwarfs and other characters? My ds is 5 yrs old and he loves the Narnia movies, but I'm not sure he can sit through chapters without the pictures!

Thanks everyone!

Blessings,
Yen

My kids have just listened to the Chronicles of Narnia on audio, I think from age 6-7 on up they understand it and enjoy it immensely though we do have to worry about "scary" fight scenes and things like that. I wouldn't categorize it as ancient culture or anything like that. It is fantasy. You could use it as your fantasy reading selection - in Beyond Little Hearts or Bigger Hearts (though that would get you through only one of the 7 books, or maybe you could fast track and read 2 in the 4 weeks). In the guide it talks about what Fantasy is and has the child think of things in the book that could be real and things that could not.

I'm sure Julie or Carrie could chip in with why they didn't use it on the list of Fantasy options. Maybe there is a study on it in a later guide. Or you could use it as a selection the child would read with DITHR (again Fantasy). I'm not really sure what grade range it would fit in though.

The audio says 8 and up but we've read it aloud with the family (not quite as scary then) and my 4 year old enjoyed them, although they were way above his head. My 7 year old liked them best at the time.

Wow thanks for these... My ds is doing LHFHG now, I guess I'm a bit too excited to get to narnia hehe...

We used "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as the fantasy selection for our story-time in Bigger. I have the rest of the books and am wondering if I should just have my daughter read them or actually include them in our studies.

My ds18 read them all in 2nd/3rd grades. At that time he was in a private, Christian school. The teacher read one of them to the class, and he was hooked.

I know that some Christians do not approve of these books, and that may be the reason they are not incorporated into HOD.

I love the Narnia books! I wasn't introduced to them until 9th grade, but in looking up the reading level, they are listed at a 6.1. So it would be a good book for DITHOR for a more advanced reader, around 4-6th grade. I don't think the content is questionable for a younger child just more so the understanding level and being able to sit still to listen with no pictures. When my dc were younger, I read them the Narnia picture books. There are quite a few good ones. When they were a bit older, there are some nice chapter books of the series that they read themselves. So there are lots of options available even before you get to the actual series if you really want to dig into Narnia.

Thanks very much for these responses!