I’m a firm believer that sometimes whether or not we like a book depends on what’s going on in our lives and where we are emotionally, as much as anything else. And sometimes a book comes along at just the right time.
The latter was the case for me in reading Once Upon a Wardrobe. I recently found out that one of my closest friends had decided to end his fight against multiple illnesses and go into hospice. That news, and subsequently saying goodbye to him, hit me hard. This book was just the balm to help with those emotions.
Megs Devonshire is a fiercely intelligent young woman on scholarship at Oxford. She loves figures and equations, but she loves her younger brother George even more. Eight-year-old George has been ill since he was born, but the doctors don’t expect him to see his ninth birthday.
What George loves more than anything is a good story. He is utterly captivated by a brand-new book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and he dreams of being transported to a magical land like that. When he learns that the author of this book, C.S. Lewis, teaches at Oxford, he convinces Megs to seek the man out and ask where Narnia came from.
When Megs connects with the man and his brother, “Jack” Lewis regales her with tales of his childhood and the magical places they created. But while he never quite answers Megs’ question directly, what he gives her and her brother is something even more special.
I loved this so much. It’s sad but hopeful and just utterly beautiful!!
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