The Chronicles of Narnia – The Last Battle

C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle is the final Narnia adventure for 8 year olds, and it begins with a lion skin floating down a waterfall.

What happens

Shift is a clever, ugly old ape. Puzzle is a donkey who's been told so often that he isn't clever that he believes it. When the skin turns up, Shift sews it into a coat for Puzzle.

From far off, in bad light, a donkey in a lion skin might just pass for Aslan.

And then Shift starts giving orders in Aslan's name. The talking trees are cut down and sold. Talking Horses are whipped. The animals are told they'll be sent south to work in mines and pull carts, and that their wages will go to "Aslan".

Tirian, the last King of Narnia, can't believe it. Neither can his best friend, Jewel the Unicorn. But how do you argue when everyone says the orders come from Aslan himself?

It's a sad and serious Narnia. The scene where Shift tells the animals that Aslan and the cruel god Tash are one and the same is heartbreaking (the tiny lamb who dares to ask a question gets spat at for it).

There's still plenty of the old Narnia warmth, too. The mice, the rabbit and the moles who creep out at night to feed the king, tied to a tree, are just lovely.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This is the darkest of the Narnia books. In the opening chapters, Tirian and Jewel kill two men in a rage (one is beheaded), and a tree spirit falls down dead in front of them when her tree is cut far away.

The Calormenes, the people from the south, are also described in a way that hasn't aged well, as dark-faced men smelling of garlic and onions. That one really is worth talking through.

For a reader who's come all the way through Narnia, though, this is the big finish. They'll recognise the names Tirian remembers from the old stories, and they'll feel how much he wants the children from our world to come back and help.

What to read next

If they'd like to see how Narnia began, The Magician's Nephew is in the library too. Digory and Polly squeeze along the roof space of a row of London houses, hunting for the empty one.