‘Chronicles of Narnia’ series to get makeover

The “Chronicles of Narnia” series is to get new titles and new editions to mark the release of the third movie adaption, out later this year.

HarperCollins is bringing out the books–through Zondervan at Christian retail–in advance of the Dec. 10 premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, from Walden Media and 20th Century Fox.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be updated with movie covers in multiple editions, including adult softcover, rack-sized paperback, digest-sized paperback and the seven-book boxed set.

New products will include two “I Can Read” books for children aged 4 to 8, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Quest for the Lost Lords and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Aboard the Dawn Treader. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will also be available in new editions, including a “read-aloud” edition and a book and audiobook CD package.
In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the publication of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the first in C.S. Lewis’ famed fantasy series, Zondervan is publishing a deluxe edition of the complete “Chronicles of Narnia,” packaged in a slipcase and retailing for $100.

Zondervan spokesperson Tara Powers said that the company would be working closely with CBA accounts to draw attention to both the movie and the books. “We have developed a custom merchandise kit with movie images that will include in-store signage for all kinds of fixtures,” she told Christian Retailing. “We will also be distributing bookmarks and movie posters for our accounts to share with consumers. We will be coordinating a book giveaway at screenings to further underscore our message of reading this literary classic before seeing the movie.”

Additional promotional efforts include a “Read It Before You See It” print and radio media campaign that will be coordinated with 20th Century Fox. Zonderkidz will target Christian youth with direct-mail campaigns to youth workers.

Anticipating the latest “Narnia” movie, Powers said: “We believe there is always a market for a truly great adventure story-be it in print, on screen or both. The ‘Narnia’ series continues to excite readers more than 60 years after they were first written and will continue to for generations to come.”

-via Christian Retailing

14 Comments

  1. Are they redoing the cover of the Chronicles like they did for PC? And if so, do you know when that edition will be available?
    Thanks,
    For Christ Alone

  2. This is so cool. They are really getting this out there. I don’t understand what they mean by “new titles”. If they mean there will be extra books along side VODT then okay, but other than that I don’t get it. Still it is really great. I am going to read it again!

  3. Fenris Ulf is alive and well and living on my bookshelf.
    The Dark Island’s still around too. 🙂
    For further information, consult the letters as deep as a spear is long on the trunk of the World Ash Tree.
    Which is just my way of saying, when I hear “redo Chronicles”, there are certain atrocities that jump to mind which, if undone, would be too good to be true. 🙂

    • The changes you refer to were made by Lewis himself for the American editions. In some cases, they are improvements. Puddlegum’s introduction, for example, was definitly improved.

      If they would change the order back to Lewis’ original published order, I would jump for joy and buy three sets.

  4. Yes, unfortunately Mr. Gresham seems to have taken for granted that the original English versions were gospel. (Fortunately for the world, Christopher Tolkien didn’t make a similar decision about all those “Bilbo cheated Gollum” changes to the Hobbit). I applaud Gresham’s determination to get the movies made, but it’s very hard to put too much credence in the creative decisions of a man who once said with a straight face that Orual wasn’t really ugly, she just “thought” she was. I realize that he couldn’t always get his way on the movies, but the power and authority of Aslan would have been the one thing worth fighting to keep in in the first two movies. Fortunately, the rumors suggest they may be getting Aslan right this time.
    I realize (in the words of the great Yogurt) that moichandising is where da real money is made, so as long as we’re coming out with “I can read” multiple cover bubblegum cards and burger-king glass coupon included gold-lined versions of these books, why not come out with a classy, properly numbered, post-Lewis-changes version of the Chronicles, collector’s edition? I can guarantee it would sell out in five minutes. Gresham can hardly claim at this point that it would be “too confusing”.
    Maybe we could find a philosophers, strike, sorceror’s stone and change all the text magically?
    Seriously on the collector’s edition. I won’t even be disappointed if “The Last Battle” (which is book 7, in case there’s any confusion) contains the line “‘And this,’ he said, ‘is the Lord Digory, who was with her on that day.”. 🙂
    Thanks for the heads up on the Puddleglum thing. Hadn’t heard that one.

    • I don’t think that Gresham is the only one that can make a decision to publish an edition of the Narnia books with the original publication numbers on them. I think it’s HarperCollins that we’d need to talk to about that.

      As for the Sorceror’s Stone/Philosopher’s Stone thing, that’s merely an American English/British English thing. ALL of the Harry Potter books were written in British English, of course, but when published in America they all featured changes so that American English readers would understand them in the same ways.

      Over there, the British hear Philosopher and *think* of Sorcerors. Here in America, we hear Philosopher and think of someone who studies Philosophy. There are things like that throughout the books though on a smaller scale. The word “pants” for instance refers to underwear over there. We had a very odd conversation between a salesman (US) and a business partner (UK) in which the salesman asked what color pants he wanted, not knowing what he was asking. It made for a lot of laughs later on, but was awkward at first.

  5. Hello I live in Mexico I (am here) know if the book will be published in my country?

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