C. S. Lewis was a contemporary and friend of J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford. Tolkein is best known today for his Ring trilogy, recently made into a series of Academy Award-winning films. Whereas Tolkein based his novels on a fantasy land largely of his own making, Lewis poulated his Narnia series with human children, mythical creatures, and Christian allegory. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe follows the exploits of the four Pevensie siblings–Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter–who enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of “hide-and-seek” in the rural country home of an elderly professor. There they discover an extraordinary land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants. The evil White Witch has cursed the once-charming and peaceful land with eternal winter. Under the guidance of a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, the children fight to overcome the White Witch’s powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular climactic battle that will free Narnia from her icy spell forever.