Narnia Promotion Enchants Library
November 1, 2005By KAREN DEWITT
The Washington Examiner
A faun carrying an umbrella. A queen in a sledge. A magnificent lion.
The images appeared in the mind of British writer C.S. Lewis more than 50 years ago, prompting him to write "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." The novel about the Pevensie children, evacuated to the countryside from World War II London, and their discovery of the magical land of Narnia on the other side of a wardrobe, has captivated generations of children and adults.
Those characters and more were on stage at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library on Tuesday as part of an exhibit to promote the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," due to open in theaters Dec. 9.
Antonio Williams, 9, a fourth-grader at Walker Jones Elementary School, wasn't familiar with the characters or the book, but he was enthusiastic about Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are."
"There is a lot in there," said Antonio, who had read Sendak's book and one about Martin Luther King Jr. with his volunteer reading mentor, David Busby, a lawyer with Dorsey and Whiting.
And that enthusiasm for reading is exactly what Walden Media and its partners - Everybody Wins! DC, a children's literacy and mentoring organization, and the National Education Association's Read Across American initiative - hope to spark with the exhibit.
"We're a different kind of media company," said Francis "Chip" Flaherty, vice president of Walden Media, which hopes to use popular entertainment to foster reading. "We always want you to go back to the book. Just open up a book."
Walden Media is backed by Philip Anschutz, who also owns the corporate parent of The Examiner.
"The doors to the library are like the wardrobe," Flaherty said.
Chronicles of Narnia:
- "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (1950)
- "Prince Caspian" (1951)
- "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (1952)
- "The Silver Chair" (1953)
- "The Horse and His Boy" (1954)
- "The Magician's Nephew" (1955)
- "The Last Battle" (1956)
kdewitt@dcexaminer.com
