Debra Maze did an excellent job at putting illustrations to these classics. Her artwork is gorgeous! She has done a wonderful job of keeping the story simple enough for a three to five year old to appreciate and love. In fact, I have happily read it over and over again to my children. All of Debra Maze's Narnia books are perfect for introducing or accompaning children to the world of Narnia.
These books make excellent gifts!

Growing up I loved Narnia, and the wonderful picture books by Deborah Maze have enabled me to introduce Narnia to my 4 year old son who loves them. I tried reading the rest of the original outloud, but he is not ready for that level. This is a wonderful way to introduce children to Narnia. Our only problem is we want more. We would love to see the rest of the "Magicians Nephew" in this format and "The Vogage of the Dawn Treader" would provide wonderful illustrations!

In the first 24 hours since this book was purchased my daughter has insisted on having it read to her 7 times. No other book has had this affect. She wants to know what is holding up the next volume, and when is her dad going to get it for her.

Highly readable for an academic work. A deep and uniquely insightful perspective on one of the last century's most complex writers. Even casual readers of C. S. Lewis will find this book captivating.

Unlike most literary criticism this book is very rich, perceptive and readable. Anyone who likes C. S. Lewis should get their hands on this book. I look forward to more books by this author.

Tha author has read Lewis extensively, and reads the Space Trilogy in the light of Lewis the man. He sheds new light on the sources of inspiration, and comments on the criticism that has been raised against the trilogy. I have read the trilogy several times, and this study deepened my understanding of it. It is well written and highly readable. I could have wished for a deeper assessment of the "pagan" influences of the trilogy. However, the study is well worth reading for anyone who likes reading Lewis, esp. his fiction.

Descubrí estas histórias de C.S. Lewis cuando tenía 19 años de edad y jamás he encontrado un cuento más lindo y bien escrito que del "León, la bruja y el armario". No sé si todos los otros números de esta serie han sido traducidos a Español pero ojalá que sí, ya que podría compartir estos cuentos tan bellos con mis sobrinos hispanoparlantes.

Este cuento empieza cuando la pequeña Lucy decide esconderse de sus hermanos en un armario durante un juego a escondidas. Sin querer descubre el mundo de Narnia y sus aventuras empiezan. Conoce a muchos animales y bestias raras pero cuando regresa a contar a sus hermanos lo que había visto, ellos no la creen. Solo llendo todos juntos a Narnia logran creer a su pequeña hermana y allí empiezan sus experiencias incluyendo la gran lucha entre el bien y el mal.

El parecido entre Jesucristo y el león Aslan son obvios pero la história no es escrita de forma muy religiosa, ya que el fín es entretener a los niños (y a muchos adultos) sin uso de doctrina. La lucha entre el bien y el mal, y el amor profundo de Aslan hacia los habitantes de Narnia y los pequeños es el basis de este cuento.

Una história perfecta para toda edad.

C.S. Lewis nos presenta la historia de Jesucristo en una bella y creativa forma metafórica ideal para el lector infantil, aunque no menos interesante para el lector adulto.

La primera vez que leí este libro tenía yo 8 años de edad, y aunque nunca asocié los personajes ficticios creados por Lewis con la teología cristiana que estos implican, fue para mí de suma admiración la actuación de Aslan, el león que representa a Jesucristo.

Desde que comienza hasta que termina el libro está inundado de magia y fantasía que extasia y apasiona. La bruja es vívidamente representada en su maldad, y Aslan en su ternura y nobleza. "El hijo del emperador de Ultramar", como es llamado por los agobiados habitantes de Narnia. Narnia es el país al que han accedido los cuatro protagonistas humanos, "hijos de Adán y Eva", a través de un guardarropas o armario en un cuarto vacío. Este es, sin duda, y probablemente siempre lo sea, uno de mis libros favoritos..

Personally, I don't know how Inspirational Press stays in business! They have all of these high-quality books for bargain-barrel prices. And the printing aspects are high-quality-the bindingholds up to my vicious attacks with the pen and constant pondering and page-turning and re-page-turning!

This is a "four-fer," containing some of C. S. Lewis's best work.

"Surprised by Joy" is his spiritual autobiography and the basis for the film "Shadowlands." If you love Lewis or love biographies, get this and enjoy! It ranks with St. Paul, St. Augustine, and St. Martin Luther in power and depth of conversion.

"Reflections on the Psalms" is Lewis "comparing notes" on the psalms, student to another student. He is very perceptive and has a strong background in literary criticism, so his comments
are insightful.

"Four Loves" is an essay on the most favorite of all emotions. He compares the different types or dimensions to love that we do not normally considers. God is love, but what, pray tell, is love? Lewis discusses this question and comes up with answers.

"Business of Heaven" is a daily devotional a la Oswald Chambers, and includes special readings for special days and movable feats. IT works well for Protestants and Catholics. There is even a reading for Leap Day, avoiding a common mistake devotionals make.

If you have thought about getting one of these books, get this "four-fer" and save your mony by buying in bulk.

C.S. Lewis offers an inspirational and thought-provoking collection of works here. "Surprised by Joy" tells a powerful story of a man converted by God's marvelous power. Lewis explores the essence of salvation when he confesses that he came into the Kingdom of God fighting every inch of the way. He reveals that the natural man has no desire to be saved but that God's will ultimately wins out over our own.

"Reflection on the Psalms" is inspirational, devotional, and thought-provoking. It is a must read for every C.S. Lewis buff.

"The Four Loves" ought to be read by everyone, Christian or non-Christian. It explores Love in in its simplest forms with reverent intellectual integrity and in its highest forms with awe-inspiring depth. Any reader will go away from this one with a deeper understanding of this basic human need and God's powerful force of Love. If you read anything at all "The Four Loves" must be on the list.

"The Business of Heaven" is rich with Lewis' imagination, classic style, and terrific philosophical questioning. He takes us right into paradise!

I have loved the narnia books all my life and found this new book very interesting because it told me about the authors childhood which made me feel that I knew him. The book is also a great romantic story about his friendship and then marriage to the author Joy Gresham.

As an avid reader since childhood of the Chronicles of Narnia, I was thrilled to read this wonderful biography of C. S. Lewis. The author paints a detailed picture of his privileged childhood in Belfast, Ireland, followed by unhappy years at English boarding schools.
I enjoyed reading about his many years at Oxford Univeristy, first as a brilliant student and later as a professor. His touching romance with American author Joy Gresham and her tragic death touched my heart.
This is a wonderful book and I recommend it to adults and young people. Cathy Gustavson, retired professor

Fear not. Dive in. This is the sort of book one keeps around for decades.

Books sometimes are like children's clothes - they have to be grown into. This is one of them.

Look for yourself. Avoid others' conclusions. Look for yourself. Like a grown up.

You'll find nothing. And everything.

THE HIERARCHY OF HEAVEN AND EARTH : A New Diagram of Man in the Universe. By D. E. Harding. With an Introduction by C. S. Lewis. 268 pp. Gainesville : University Presses of Florida, 1979 (originally published by Faber and Faber, London, 1952).

The present book has been reprinted a number of times, and I suppose all Douglas Harding fans have at some point acquired a copy of it. After all, Harding Sensei's fantastically important discovery of the spiritual technique of "reversing the arrow of attention" places him squarely in the forefront of the world's spiritual masters, and if a figure such as Bankei can be considered one of Japan's three greatest Zen Masters (the other two being Dogen and Hakuin), I see nothing wrong in considering Douglas Harding as, in a sense, Britain's greatest 'Zen' Master.

Given this, everything Harding Sensei writes ought to be worth reading. Unfortunately, although this was certainly the case with the ORIGINAL manuscript of 'Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth,' the present 'popular' edition of it was so severly cut by Harding himself for publication as to leave it, though still a philosophic masterpiece, impenetrably obscure, and, so far as I am aware, very few readers actually succeed in making their way through the book.

With pretty well all of the great mass of examples and illustrations found in the original extensively annotated 650 folio-sized pages of the manuscript having been cut, the shortened version becomes just too difficult for most folks to follow. Readers who are as brainy as C. S. Lewis should have no trouble, but unfortunately most of us aren't.

Those who would like to read what Harding actually wrote, the original and uncut version of 'Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth,' will have to find the sumptuous facsimile of Harding's typewritten manuscript. At the urging of his colleagues and friends, this was published in a limited edition of 300 numbered copies by The Shollond Trust, London, in 1998. It can be found by searching the web, and a few copies may still be available. Those who have read it have greatly enjoyed it, and have found it to be far more intelligible than the shortened version.

Newcomers to Harding would be far better off starting with his other books, particularly his classic 'On Having No Head : Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious' - that is if they are lucky enough to be able to find a copy. It's a short book which gives the quintessence of Harding's approach in just 81 pages, and it provides an excellent foundation for approaching the Master's later books. In fact, it may turn out to be the only Harding book you will ever need.

If you love C.S. Lewis as much as I do, then you will find this book captivating, transporting you into the world of Jack as a boy and as a man, as a pagan and as a Christian. Hopefully it will be back in print soon. Every page is lavishly illustrated with photos and artwork of people and places that were dear to Lewis. What makes it even more special are the descriptions of each place or person by lewis himself, taken from his letters and books. IT is the best gift a Lewis fan could receive, too, so look for a friend!

It is most unfortunate that this superb book has gone out of print. It is a pictorial tour of the places and people familiar to C.S. Lewis. Next to each picture or illustration is a caption explaining the relation to Lewis, with most of the country scenes having vivid, picturesque quotes from Lewis himself. This book can be read in one sitting or slowly digested over several days. If you ever find a copy, hang on to it. It's a lovely book.

Contents of this book include the Preface, written by Jocelyn Gibb, who knew Lewis from his role as editor for several of his books. Long time friend Owen Barfield supplied the Introduction. Theologian Austin Farrer remembers Lewis's work as a Christian apologist. J.A.W. Bennett, a former Lewis pupil and later colleague, referred to Lewis as one of the last representatives of the "Old Western Order". Nevill Coghill was a classmate of Lewis's at Oxford in the early 1920s, and shares his recollections of the man he refers to as "easily the greatest teacher of our time in his chosen fields." John Lawlor, another former Lewis pupil, gives his richly insightful comments about Lewis's tutoring methods and approach to learning. Novelist Stella Gibbons discusses Lewis's science fiction novels. Kathleen Raine remembers her conversations with Lewis about poetry and criticism during his last years at Cambridge; and Chad Walsh describes Lewis's profound impact on American religious thinking. At the end of the book, Walter Hooper provides a bibliography of Lewis writings. This book and others - like C.S. Lewis: Speaker and Teacher, C.S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table, and In Search of C.S. Lewis - is a fine volume of commentary about C.S. Lewis and his work by those who knew him. Fun reading for Lewis fans.

This book is a collection of articles written by several people who knew Lewis and does indeed shed light on the man C.S. Lewis as well as his writings. I thought professor John Lawlor's article particularly fine. Lewis fans will enjoy reading this book.

Somewhere in the world there may be someone who knows more about the life and work of C.S. Lewis than does Professor James Como, but almost certainly there is no one anywhere who appreciates him more or has analyzed him as thoroughly. What Plato did for Socrates in the 160 pages of the Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, Professor Como does for Professor Lewis in the 200 pages of this remarkable new book - shows us a great mind seeking, finding, and presenting the pure and transfiguring light amid the darkness of this present world. The word "genius" is used much too generously these days, but Professor Como convincingly demonstrates that C.S. Lewis has a multiple claim upon that rarefied reality - as scholar, storyteller, medievalist, apologist, fabulist, rhetorician, and possessor of one of the greatest memories in human history, a memory able to recall and recite every word its possessor ever read. While the book is not for the dialectically timid - there are passages that demand to be read with an extra-large thinking cap - the human Lewis is here in abundance, "the good man speaking well," and also, like an even greater teacher, having compassion on the multitude. Not only did the compassionate Lewis answer every letter written to him - and they were legion - he generally wrote his works in a style the multitude understood and delighted in. Here is a book that many of the multitude of Lewis-lovers will read to their profit, their pleasure, and their greater affection for the mere Christian who not only showed them Narnia, Glome, and Perelendra, but a new heaven and a new earth.

I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic gramar school and high school and am currently a history major. While not practising I do understand alot of christian mythology and am always interested in anything that may reveal interpretations of faith. This novel was a wonderfully incightfull glimpse into the world of a demon (christian). The messages from Screwtape to his nephew challenge the thoughts and actions we take on a daily basis. Lewis tactfully chalenges those who would call themselves atheists not to mention challenging the justifications many of us use on a daily basis to avoid following an ethical life. While reading it makes you stop and say to yourself, wow I am doing the exact thing this demon wants me to do and while it doesn't make you fear that your soul will be taken it makes you wonder, what would it hurt to go that extra mile to take the ethical, morally right alternative. This book offers me a great reminder whenever I am having trouble making a decision on a problem in my life. But be warned if you have been preached to all your life many of this will sound familiar and in too large of doses can be off putting, but overall a wonderfull read.

This small book contains within its pages a powerful example of the authors' penetrating insight into human nature. Although aimed primarily at christians, it provides observations of the human condition useful to any student of moral psychology. These lessons are set in a series of fictional correspondances between Screwtape, a high ranking demon, and his young protege Wormwood, a young demon that has been sent out on his first assignment to ensnare a human. The seemingly gentle and fatherly advice to the young demon from his patron exposes the true designs of the masters of Hell, as well as the frailties of the human psyche that they seek to exploit in their attempts to gain a convert for their side. The demonic viewpoints are presented in an ironically sensitive and almost plaintive voice, expressing the motives and problems of the demons from their viewpoint. This wonderful literary mechanism adds power to this probing treatise on the common frailties and pitfalls of humans as they struggle in a morally ambiguous universe. Short, concise, and easily apprehended, this is a classic example of Mr. Lewis' great value as a christian apologist and an observer of human nature. Highly reccommended.