C. S. Lewis (For Children)

It is a children’s version of the full-length biography of C. S. Lewis. It tells how a boy named Jack lost his mother and stopped believing in God, how God found him again as a grown man, and how he spent the rest of his life telling people about Jesus in books, on the radio and in the stories of Narnia.

A writer and teacher who was born in Belfast in 1898 and died in Oxford in 1963. His family and friends called him Jack. He taught at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, spoke about the Christian faith on the radio during the Second World War, and wrote many books, including the seven Chronicles of Narnia.

Every chapter is short and made to be read aloud. It begins with a Bible verse, tells one part of Jack’s story, shows one simple thing it means for you, and ends with a short prayer. Three questions follow, to talk about together.

Some of it is sad. Jack’s mother died when he was nine, he was hurt in a war, and his wife Joy died of cancer. The book does not pretend otherwise. But it tells these things gently, for children, and it is above all a story of how God never stopped looking for Jack, and stayed with him on happy days and sad ones.

Yes. They come from Jack’s own letters, his brother Warnie’s diaries, and the people who knew him. Where people are not sure about something, such as the exact year Jack first knelt and prayed, the book says so. Jack’s own books are still under copyright, so this book tells his story in its own words, and it does not retell the Narnia stories. To enjoy those, read the books themselves.

It is for children, to be read aloud by a grown-up or read by an older child alone. There is also a teen edition, and the full-length biography for older readers.