The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is  the second book of seven in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Of the series of books three of the books, including this one, have been made into major motion pictures. In this book the children, Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy are sent back to Narnia to aid Prince Caspian in retaking the throne. Prince Caspian's uncle, King Miraz, killed his brother, Prince Caspian's father, in an attempt to rule. Prince Caspian was allowed to remain aire to the throne until King Miraz's wife had a son. Once King Miraz has a son to continue the blood line he orders Prince Caspian dead. After he escapes he uses Susan's horn to call their aid to his side and yet another great adventure and battle are under way.

There are slight differences in the text and the movie which is expected when a great book is adapted into a movie; however, I do think that the motion picture was closely related to book. While I am always hesitant when hearing a book was made into a movie I think that in this case it gave new life to an old series. The original books were published in the early to mid- 1950's and I think that the movies have introduced this series to a whole new generation to some really great adventure books.

When using this series in my classroom I thought that it would be a great series to use in an author study for the class. I would have children sign-up to read the different books in the series and then have a groups divided so that each group would have one student that read a different book in the series. I think that it would provide a chance to see the similarities/differences in the style between the books and the development of characters throughout the series.

There are a couple of things I would be concerned with in using these books in a classroom setting. One is that when they were written C.S. Lewis wrote them with some biblical references. I would send a letter home to parents to let them know I would be using this book as part of the curriculum to try and avoid any problems. Also the language used in these books is a bit old fashioned. Much of the vocabulary and/or terminology is out dated and may be hard for the students to understand, especially any children where English was their second language. I do not think that it would be bad enough that I would not utilize book. I remember reading the first book as a child and I think that this book is just as good as the first.