Some of the tales we read in childhood are ones we feel we must share-that we must pass on to our children. For many homeschooling families, C.S. Lewis's seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia are near the top of the list of stories worth sharing.

However, Narnia is undergoing some changes, it seems. A new combined volume presents the stories in a totally different order than most remember. Rumors swirl about "new" Narnia books written by another author. And on December 9, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will hit the big screen in a full-scale cinematic production. For some Narnia fans, this is a long-awaited event. Others fear that Hollywood will spoil the innocent beauty of Narnia and strip the story of the spiritual subtext that gives the tale a dimension beyond the normal childish fare. Is there truth to the rumors? Is there reason to be alarmed-or excited?

It is true that few stories have had such a large and wide-ranging audience. According to Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis and the Creative and Artistic Director of the C.S. Lewis Company, around 80-90 million copies of The Chronicles of Narnia have been sold worldwide. This translates into an estimated 400 million readers of the celebrated series.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was first introduced to the world more than 50 years ago and was greeted with enthusiasm from the beginning. What was most surprising was not the response to the book but the source. It was written by a middle-aged Oxford college professor, a former atheist who was, at the time of the writing, a confirmed bachelor. He was a man better known for his poetry, scholarly tomes, and works of lay theology than for children's tales.

Yet the appeal of the simple story of wondrous adventures and supreme sacrifice quickly gave it a foothold on both sides of the Atlantic, and Lewis soon had an audience clamoring for more. Over the next six years, Lewis quickly produced six more stories of the world of Narnia and completed the seven-book series, originally published from 1950 to 1956. The Chronicles take the readers on a whirlwind tour of the Narnian world, from its very creation to the scenes of its final destruction, weaving wit and wisdom into the daring adventures of Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Susan, and assorted friends who enter Narnia from our own primary world.

The books were produced, in part, as a result of a conversation between Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who were great friends and shared a love of literature. In one conversation, they were bemoaning the type of literature that was often produced in the modern age, when Lewis commented, "If they won't write the kinds of books we want to read, we shall have to write them ourselves." Lewis encouraged Tolkien, who had by then published The Hobbit, to continue his work on a grander scale. The result, for Tolkien, was the production of his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Lewis wrote his celebrated space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Later, he wrote the seven Chronicles of Narnia, which he called a "fairy tale addressed to children."

However, the appeal of Narnia extends far beyond the audience to which it was addressed. Teenagers and adults also find pleasure in Lewis's skillfully woven tales. In an interview, Colin Duriez, author of several Lewis biographies as well as The Field Guide to Narnia, revealed his own reaction to Narnia for the first time when reading it as a teenager. Duriez had at that time been exposed to Lewis's works through reading only Mere Christianity in his Welsh high school. He looked for other works by Lewis and stumbled across The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. "I went through the wardrobe with Lucy and entered the same forest and was captivated," he said.

Part of this wide-ranging appeal comes from Lewis's own philosophy of writing for children. He felt that the writer needed to respect the intelligence of his audience, connecting with children on the basis of common experience, not a forced educational perspective. "We must meet children as equals in that area of our nature where we are their equals -," Lewis wrote. "The child as reader is neither to be patronized nor idolized: we talk to him man to man. But the worst attitude of all would be the professional attitude which regards children in the lump as a raw material which we have to handle-. I will not say that a good story for children could never be written by someone in the Ministry of Education, for all things are possible. But I should lay very long odds against it."

There is no denying the lasting legacy of the Narnian Chronicles; but what about the rumors of new Narnia books written by another author? Gresham says that they are not true. However, in the works are some books that retell the original stories in a simpler form suitable for picture books for small children.

The newest combined edition of The Chronicles of Narnia also has some changes. It now presents the stories in the order in which they took place in the chronology of Narnia, beginning with The Magician's Nephew, not in the order they were originally written. According to Gresham, Lewis would have preferred this presentation, which does make the series easier to follow. However, many people still prefer to enter Narnia first through that wardrobe with Lucy, the place where the new Narnia movie begins.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, produced by Walden Media and distributed by Disney, promises to be a visual and cinematic treat although, as with all book adaptations, it may differ somewhat from your own inner vision of Narnia. Wherever you choose to enter this world, it is well worth visiting, especially with a child at your side. As the new movie approaches, this may be just the time to take a trip through the books again yourself.

Amelia Harper is author of Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings and a contributor to the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. In November, she will be presenting a paper on "Worlds of Imagination in the Writings of Lewis and Talkien" at a C.S. Lewis conference at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Watch for her review of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which will be posted on the TOS website at www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com in early December.