There have been some really amazing stories, and I have also related my own first experience with Narnia elsewhere, especially on the old site. But Digory's quote below does strike a chord.
DiGoRyKiRkE wrote:My first experience with Narnia happened when I was in 3rd grade. My third grade teacher was a miserable, mean, and almost verbally abusive person. . . but she introduced me to Narnia for the first time, so I guess some good came out of that classroom.
I was in about second grade at a boarding school, that is to say I was still in Infant's school We were allowed an hour to talk after we were sent to bed in our dormitory of 12 girls before lights out. An older girl, one or two grades above me, was sharing the book she must have got from the library, recounting the story of Lucy's troubles with entering the wardrobe. I remember thinking at one stage that when her sister and brothers went back inside the wardrobe, not believing she had been anywhere, that I thought Betty (her name) said that they found the wardrobe full of cakes, not coats.
The following year was a perfectly dreadful year for me in some ways, especially as the teacher we had sounds uncommonly like Dig's teacher. I spent that time wishing Aslan would come and help me, too. Or I could vanish into Narnia, like Lucy, and stay there. That was 1956, when
The Last Battle was first published. But then I left that place and then, when I went to another school, I could borrow from the Council Library these wonderful books I could read for myself. I found out there were other Narnia books - five at the time.
I've always loved the Narnia series. These books were my friends, along with others I read at the time, like Kate Seredy's books, and some others, including the Moomintroll books. I'm afraid I rather monopolised these sorts of books whilst in primary school, incurring library fines.
When I had children of my own I ensured they could enjoy these books also. They got to see the cartoon version of LWW, and when the BBC version came out, of course we watched all of it. I remember how disappointed I was that the BBC never finished the series.
By 2005 when LWW the film premiered, I had moved on, but seeing the first movie did give me goosebumps. And so here I am.