Harper Collins has published a brand new adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe aimed at introducing the youngest readers to Narnia. With 32 hard board pages featuring full color illustrations this board book is recommended for ages baby – 4 years old. This book is illustrated by Joey Chou who also works an art director at Netflix. It is possible that he will further contribute to the look of Narnia for future movies and series.
This board book is obviously a simplification of the story with many details changed or omitted. When the White Witch meets Edmund she offers him “candy” instead of Turkish Delight.
The most major change is that this book skips over the stone table entirely. Douglas Gresham justified this omission in an interview with NarniaWeb:
“The stabbing to death of Aslan by the White Witch, for example could leave little people with screaming nightmares, and quite justifiably so at that! The Wordsmith who devised the very clever method in this book, which allows the children to go to sleep (if used as a bed-time story) without nightmares or any sorrows (other than that the book doesn’t go on forever) has produced a version of the story that will not frighten the children at all, but will also prepare them for the reading of the original tale when they are old enough to really enjoy it.”
This type of reassuring language also alters the depiction of Aslan as “…big and bright like the sun. And he makes you feel safe.” which is considerably different than C.S. Lewis’s warning that he is not a tame lion.
The book may be purchased from Amazon for $9.99USD and is also available for Kindle.
