C.S. Lewis Letters to Children

Edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead

1985
A collection of letters written from C.S. Lewis to various children from 1945 to 1963.

Like other successful authors, C.S. Lewis received many letters from his fans.  Lewis felt it was his duty to respond to the letters written by children.   Many children wrote with comments and questions about the beloved Narnia series in which four children travel to a fantasy land through a magical wardrobe.  In one letter, Lewis responds to a girl who questioned why the children grew up in Narnia and then returned to this world through the wardrobe as children.  Yes, he replies, they will eventually grow up in this world too.  But according to Lewis, age really doesn’t matter.  

“You see, I don’t think age matters so much as people think.  Parts of me are still 12 and I think other parts were already 50 when I was 12: so I don’t feel it very odd that they grow up in Narnia while they are children in England.”

What an insight this is.  And what a relief, too.  I’m not the only one who feels this way!  At times I feel (and act) like a child.  Other times I feel a hundred years old.  Perhaps this is why I love children’s literature so much - a really good children’s book can be enjoyed by any age.  It was Lewis himself who said, “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” I completely agree!