Anyone who has suffered at the hands of school
bullies will love The
Silver Chair, sixth of the Narnia chronicles.
Eustace Scrubb, who
made his first trip to Narnia in The Dawn Treader, returns to Narnia in
the company of Jill Pole, a fellow student at Experiment House.
The two find their way into Narnia while being chase by a crowd of
bullies.
Aslan has called Jill and Eustace into Narnia to find Rilian, the only
son of King Caspian. Jill receives four signs from Aslan to guide
them on their journey, with the admonition that she and Eustace not
cease their search until they have found the prince, died trying, or
returned to their own country.
Helped on their way by some talking owls, Jill and Eustace head into
Ettinsmoor looking for the ruined city of the giants, guided by
Puddleglum the Marshwiggle. Puddleglum is well named; his morose
demeanour soon leads the
children to write him off as a wet blanket who
always expects the worst. However, the worst tends to happen,
especially in the house of Harfang the giant.
Their search for Prince Rilian takes Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum into
great danger. All three come very close to becoming an entrée at
the giants’ autumn feast. Because Jill fails to obey Aslan’s
instruction to repeat the signs morning and night, she soon gets them
muddled; the trio at last find their road only by accident when trying
to escape being eaten. However, the greatest danger awaits them
when they find the prince in the spell of the witch who killed his
mother.
The end of the children’s quest is not the end of the book. While
Jill and Eustace have helped solve Narnia’s problem, they are returning
to problems of their own. When they return to their own world,
Aslan sends a little Narnian aid to help Jill and Eustace deal with the
seven bullies beating the bushes for them.
The Silver Chair is a fast-paced adventure story, filled with a
wonderful variety of characters inhabiting strange worlds. This
is a story that young and old alike will want to read again and again.