The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle

Bibliographic information: 

Lewis, C.S.  The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle. New York: Scholastic, Inc. 2005

Brief plot description:

This is the last book in the Narnia series.  It begins with an ape called Shirt and a donkey called Puzzle.  Shift and Puzzle see an object in Caldron Pool, and Puzzle brings it to the bank.  The object is a lion skin that Shift turns into a suit for Puzzle to wear.  Shift makes Puzzle pretend to be Aslan so that he can take over Narnia.  Tirian goes to stop the bad things, but gets captured by the Calormenes when he turns himself in for killing someone.  Shift is presented the King and Jewel who are tied up as prisoners.  Later two children come to rescue the King.  They are Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole from England, and they have come to help the King and Narnia.  What will happen in the last book of Narnia? 

Brief review:

I think this book could be used for third through high school students.  In the lower (3-4) grades The Last Battle would be best for a read aloud because of the concepts.  For fifth and above the students could read this independently or as a group.  One of the things that need to be looked at is the word ass. For the third and fourth grades it would be easier and safer to replace it with donkey. For other grades you should tell the students that when they see the word to think donkey. Another concept that will need to be discussed is how Aslan and Tash are gods of two different groups of people. This can be presented so that does not bring up religion.  One way is to say they are principles of different schools.  Based on the age you might be able to say they do represent gods.

Genre label:

Modern Fantasy

Reading level/interest level:

5^th – 8^th grade

             

Similar materials in style content, theme or characters:

Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy