Rethinking Heaven: A Review of "The Magician's Nephew" by CS Lewis

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On the way home tonight from Seoul, I finally finished reading, "The Magician's Nephew" by C.S. Lewis. This is the first in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series. Although I would like to write a more in-depth review, I'm going to focus on the books impact on me.

Why am I reading this? I have nothing better to do with my time. Well, I don't know how to respond to that but that's probably not the real reason (and not at all true by the way, even though this is my last week of vacation before the new semester begins). Actually, I started reading this to encourage my son to read it. But then I realized this is good reading for me.

I'm actually on a quest to fill in the holes that are left from my theological education. NT Wright is helping me in tremendous ways and I think C.S. Lewis is complementing Wright. Actually, this book, especially in the second half, made me think more about Heaven. I have probably more recently become complacent about my thinking of Heaven because of the pre-tribulational rapture position that we will be taken out of this world. But C.S. Lewis had a way of reimagining it. Now, I'm not totally sure whether C.S. Lewis was trying to portray Heaven or the Garden of Eden through this book but it struck me as exciting to think of Heaven as a dynamic place like Narnia, a place accessible in this life (although obviously it's not really meant for humans living on earth to access it through magic rings). 

I'm sure things will become much clearer as I continue to read, which I plan to do, and hope to offer a more in-depth review, also looking at those of more fundamentalist and/or progressive backgrounds and their critique(s) on this series.

For now, here are the main characters. Aslan the Lion (Whom I think represents Christ but I'll have to read more), Digory, the nephew of the Magician, Andrew, Polly, Digory's neighbor whom he becomes friends with. There are many more characters who are more developed as the series goes on. One of the interesting things that continue in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," is that the "Wardrobe" is the closet that the characters have to enter in order to go to Narnia. More about that is yet to come.

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: A Review of "Freckle Juice" by Judy Blume

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 I picked up "Freckle Juice" by Judy Blume up at Bora Public Library recently. It's funny. As I read this short book (less than 100 pages) I found myself envisioning my second or third grade when I attended Shawsheen Elementary School in Greeley, Colorado, and then when I was googling the Freckle Juice movie, I saw that this is about the second grade. So I thought that was something. 

So what's the story about? Spoiler alert! It's about a boy named Andrew who wants to have freckles (What is it about wanting to have what we can't and not wanting what we have?). He envies a boy in his class who has freckles, apparently because then nobody would know whether or not he has washed his face and neck. So a girl in his class gives him a "magic potion" that will give him freckles. But all it does is make him sick. His mom thought that his appendix had ruptured. He stayed home the next day and the day after that, he gave himself freckles with a magic marker. 

Then his teacher, Miss Kelly, came to the rescue and gave him a "magic" freckle-remover kit. He went into the bathroom and removed his so-called "freckles."

The moral of the story: Accept yourself for who you are. If you don't have freckles, be glad you don't. If you have freckles, be glad you do because that's who you are.

If you're looking to check off reading a book, this is an easy one. I would guess an adult could read this whole book in an hour or less in one sitting, though I read it over several days. And now I can check it off the list and am now one book closer to catching up to my son.

By the way, if you're looking for a good library with quality children's books in English, I highly recommend Bora Public Library. By the way, I'm not getting any kickbacks in telling you that.