Back when we were homeschooling, my favorite part of the day was the afternoon read-aloud time. I loved picking out great stories and doing all the “voices” of the characters. The kids would sprawl out on the living room carpet and color or draw or build Lego creations while I read. “One more chapter, pleeeease” was music to my ears.

I missed afternoon read-aloud time when the kids grew up and left the nest. So I decided to read to PB. My dear husband is always a good sport when it comes to my ideas, God bless him. As it turns out, he loved it as much as the kids did. And I still get to do “voices.”

I was shocked when he admitted that he had never read The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, so we started book one last January. This week, we finished book seven. Please understand that instead of “one more chapter, please” I now hear soft snores after a few pages. It’s slow going.

The characters were a real test of my various voice inflections. King Tirian got a British accent while the Dwarfs spoke with a Scottish brogue. Shift, the Ape, had a Texas drawl and Puzzle, the donkey, was given a Bronx dialect. Puddleglum had an “Eeyore-ish” sound and Rishda was gravelly and sinister. Of course, for Aslan, I tried my best to imitate Liam Neeson and I took it up a few octaves for Reepicheep.

“The Last Battle” is my favorite book in the series. I couldn’t hold back the tears at the end when Aslan came leaping down the mountain, “like a waterfall of power and beauty.” When the children said goodbye to the Shadowlands, I had to stop reading for a minute. PB didn’t quite know what to do.

As the beloved characters go further up and further in,
the reader knows what this is all about.
This is heaven, Eden restored, the Golden Gates opened.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” said Lucy. “Have you noticed one can’t feel afraid, even if one wants to? Try it. “By Jove, neither one can,” said Eustace after he had tried.

“The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.”

The Chronicles end with this magnificent paragraph—

And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Some of the finest words ever written.
Pass the tissues.

In case you’re wondering what’s up next for PB: