Book Review: Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

I finished reading this last night. I had started in October but became sidetracked due to life things; I’m glad I came back to it during the Christmas season, because it is a perfect book to read during Advent.

George is a sickly child who is aware that he won’t live to adulthood. He finds solace and escape in C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. He asks his older sister, who is a college student, to find the author at his home in Oxford and ask where Narnia came from. She is willing to do anything for him, so she agrees.

His sister, Margaret, is skeptical of anything that isn’t factual like math. She has a sick brother she’s going to lose any time – how can she have hope? How can she daydream? But as she sits down for regular conversations with Professor Lewis, she finds her heart beginning to change. Maybe George was right all along…

This book very nearly made me cry towards the end. It helps us see grief, especially expected grief, from a different perspective.

It’s a short read; I do recommend it.