Narnia Fan Spy Reepicheep, Knight of Narnia, wrote to us about the return of Narnia.com earlier today. Initially, when I went to the domain, it still went to the Disney website. I believe that the DNS hadn’t updated in my area yet.

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A few weeks ago I noticed that some of the C.S. Lewis books were getting new cover art on Amazon.com.  I ignored it at first, but I have seen it reported on in a number of places and thought it would be good to alert readers of this website about them as well.

Now, some sites are reporting that there are 9 books receiving new covers, whereas the official C.S. Lewis book website says “Collect all 10 beautiful new editions of C.S. Lewis’s greatest works.”  I’m doing some digging to find out if it is, in fact, 10 books receiving the new cover art.

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I thought you might like to check out the fantastic new game Reepicheep-Run – launched today on the HarperCollins Narnia Microsite www.discovernarnia.co.uk. Using the mouse (no pun intended), direct Reepicheep across the branches to deliver an urgent message to Prince Caspian. Those that score over 2000 points can enter the prize draw to win a treasure trove of Prince Caspian goodies, including:

• A complete Prince Caspian Movie Tie-in Library of books from HarperCollins Publishers
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Collector’s Edition Monopoly
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’s Castle 3-D Puzzle
• A Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian Poster Puzzle
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Wii videogame
• And more…

DiscoverNarnia’s Reepicheep Run game

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Long time fans of the Chronicles of Narnia who were saddened by the end of the series in 1956 may rejoice at some news from publisher Harper Collins. With the help of Walter Hooper, Colin Duriez, and other Lewis scholars, Harper Collins is posthumously publishing the book that existed in various fragments. Lewis scholars had found these fragments and pieced them together, resulting in a coherent story.

“Parts of it were in old notebooks. A page or two had been written on a couple of cocktail napkins. The opening page had been scribbled on a student’s test booklet that he was grading. A few other bits and pieces were found in other places,” said Hooper, a long time editor and collaborator with Lewis.

“A few fragments were even found on an old chewing gum wrapper from a stick of gum that Tolkien gave to Lewis,” he added.

“We are very excited about this new release,” said a representative of Harper Collins. “ We were a little leery at first about releasing it as we weren’t sure if it would sell. The only fantasy books that seem to sell now a days are Harry Potter books. You can’t bank on the success of some old dead guy.”

However another CEO, who wished to remain anonymous, expects the book to do well considering the success of Tolkien’s Children of Hurin last summer.

“Children of Hurin was number 1 on the New York Times Best-Seller list. It knocked a Harry Potter book off of it’s spot and out sold the final Left Behind book. A rare feat for a book by a deceased writer. This has shown it could work.”

Narnia has it’s own built in fan base. Readers young and old have been hoping for more Narnia books since the release of the Last Battle,” said Colin Duriez, a noted Lewis scholar and author of various handbooks devoted to CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and their various works. “Now they have their wish.”

Hardcore fans will remember that Queen Swanwhite was mentioned by Jewel the unicorn in the Last Battle as an important figure in Narnian history. Her name is featured on countless Narnia Timelines. There does appear to be some discrepancy between when Jewel says the events happened ( the year 1500 in Narnia time), and the official timeline compiled by Lewis. (900. Approximately before Jadis came to rule Narnia.)

“This book will definitely shed some light on those questions,” said Hooper. “Fans have been wondering about her for years. Now they will discover her rich story.”

We have yet to receive any details on the full plot or what other characters will appear in the story. Early rumors indicate that it may also deal with the Jadis’s return to Narnia, the beginning of the 100 year winter and how Tumnus came under her employment.

The book is expected to be released sometime this Christmas. We have not yet been able to reach Douglas Gresham for comment on this book.

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Please note the following in this issue of LOGOS: The C.S. Lewis Society Update (3/18/08):
http://www.lewissociety.org

1. Narnia News
2. Harper Collins Revamps C.S. Lewis Website and Blog
3. New Journal
4. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club
5. Other Events

1. Narnia News:

A. A massive interactive, 10,000-square-foot, educational exhibit, “The Chronicles of Narnia: International Museum Exhibition,” will premiere June 2008 at internationally renowned museums and learning institutions in a minimum of 10 cities around the world over a five-year span. The exhibit will allow visitors to enter three-dimensional settings of myth, magic and adventure that so embodied Lewis’s fantasy world.

“Becker Group Announces Epic ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: International Museum Exhibition’ in Partnership with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Walden Media” (Earth Times)

B. In a poll to determine the best children’s books of all time and conducted among 4,000 parents, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the most famous in the Narnia series, was selected as the topmost book, beating out Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was ranked sixth) and others. The poll was conducted by Booktrust in England.

“Harry Potter straggles in a ‘disappointing’ sixth in children’s books poll” (Daily Mail)

“Potter Loses Out to Narnia, Others” (NewKerala)

C. Here also is the web site for the forthcoming, second film in the Narnia series, PRINCE CASPIAN, which will premiere May 16th: Narnia.com

2. Harper Collins Revamps C.S. Lewis Website and Adds New Blog:

According to Devin Brown (Professor of English, Asbury College): “Harper Collins, the publisher for most of C. S. Lewis’s books, has completed a wonderful new make-over of its Lewis website: www.cslewis.com. Among the new features are a new C. S. Lewis Discussion Board and a C. S. Lewis Books Blog featuring new articles from Lewis scholars around the world. Viewers can read and comment on the articles as they appear. The scholars involved in this project are Sarah Arthur, Robin Baker, Devin Brown, Andrew Cuneo, David Downing, Bruce Edwards, Diana Glyer, Dan Hamilton, Joel Heck, Zach Kincaid, Don King, David Naugle, David Theroux, Jerry Root, Leland Ryken, and Michael Ward.”

http://www.cslewis.com/

3. New Journal:

Founded by Tyler Fisher in January 2004 as a newsletter of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society, current editor Judith Tonning has expanded THE CHRONICLE into a full journal. The new issue includes an essay on Lewis’s views on women; a critical commentary on THE ABOLITION OF MAN; a piece of fiction by Lewis’s mother, Flora Hamilton Lewis, edited by Walter Hooper and published here for the first time, and other items.

The journal’s Table of Contents can be viewed, and orders made, online here.

4. The next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society Bay Area Book Club will be as follows:
http://www.lewissociety.org/bookclub.php

Book for Discussion:

ORTHODOXY, by G. K. Chesterton:

Wednesday, March 19, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Andrew Dosa

Wednesday, April 2, 7:30 p.m.; Meeting moderator/leader: Andrew Dosa

In his scintillating prose, G.K. Chesterton, one of the 20th century’s greatest writers, explains the values and ideals that constitute the foundation of Christianity. Chesterton adopts an informal style in his arguments in favor of faith as an affirmation of human freedom — with ample doses of analogy, imagery, personal anecdotes, and humor. ORTHODOXY is a masterpiece of language and faith.

Here is an online outline of the book.

The meetings will be held at:

11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619 (atop the Oakland hills)

510-482-2906 phone

wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served

Here also are numerous articles on ORTHODOXY:

“ORTHODOXY: Chesterton on the ‘Delight’ OF Truth,” by James V. Schall

“A Review of ORTHODOXY by G.K. Chesterton” by Frederick Meekins

“G.K. Chesterton: Champion of Orthodoxy,” by Joseph Pearce

“ORTHODOXY,” by Wikipedia

“A Review of ORTHODOXY by G.K. Chesterton“, by Philip K. Weingart

ORTHODOXY is available in paperback

ORTHODOXY is available on CD

ORTHODOXY is available on audio tape

ORTHODOXY is available free as an online book

ORTHODOXY is available as a free MP3 audio download

ORTHODOXY is available as a free m4b audio format for the iPod and iTunes

Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings:
http://www.lewissociety.org/bookclub.php

Here also is information on C.S. Lewis:
http://www.lewissociety.org/aboutlewis.php

We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)

5. Other Events:
http://www.lewissociety.org/events.php

“The God Question: A Debate Between Dinesh D’Souza and Michael Shermer”
California State University, Fresno
April 18, 2008

“Sixth Frances Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends”
Sponsored by Taylor University, Upland, IN
May 29-June 1, 2008

“LionCon: A Narnian Convention”
Sponsored by LionCall.org
June 20-22, 2008

“Charles Williams and His Contemporaries”
Sponsored by The Charles Williams Society
Sr. Hilda’s College, Oxford, England
July 4-6, 2008

“Oxbridge 2008: The Self and the Search for Meaning”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
Oxford University, July 28 – August 2, 2008
Cambridge University, August 3-8, 2008

Please contact me with any questions.

Best regards,

David

David J. Theroux
Founder and President
C. S. Lewis Society of California
100 Swan Way, Suite 200
Oakland, CA 94621-1428
(510) 635-6892 Phone
(510) 568-6040 Fax
http://www.lewissociety.org

Founder and President
The Independent Institute
(510) 632-1366 Phone
http://www.independent.org

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Today HarperCollins Children’s Books announces the launch of its “Read It Before You See It” global digital campaign for C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. The massive web presence focuses attention on the seven books in the series as a lead in to the Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media release of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ film on May 16, 2008.

You can find their Facebook Fan Page here

HarperCollins and online agency Special Ops Media (http://www.specialopsmedia.com) are taking Narnia to where the readers live-online, working together to create a viral campaign that takes a 50-year-old classic brand to Web 2.0.

Extensive promotions on Facebook and MySpace, a custom Prince Caspian widget and “Enter to Win” consumer contests are among the Web 2.0 initiatives that will reach new and existing fans of Narnia in surprising interactive ways, presenting an enhanced look at the beloved world that is Narnia.

“Our comprehensive, highly-targeted “Read It Before You See It” online campaign allows us to leverage all our Narnia assets to create interactive, viral platforms. These will expand our audience by further engaging it and increasing its user-experience with the franchise, to grow readership in advance of the film,” said Diane Naughton, Vice President of Marketing, HarperCollins Children’s Books.

The Narnia “Read It Before You See It” campaign includes:

– Extensive promotion on social community sites Facebook and MySpace; including profiles for Prince Caspian and Narnia.
– A custom widget for MySpace with streaming daily content: movie info, trivia quiz and a countdown clock.
– A special application for Facebook-the Narnia Trivia Challenge- utilizing new technology. Fans can “join the battle” with Prince Caspian as one of their favorite Narnians, answer up to 100 questions, unlock unique content, and challenge a friend to beat their score.
– “Read It Before You See It” dedicated microsite, http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/narnia features a sweepstakes, games, information about the books, author, illustrator and much more.
– “Read It Before You See It” “Enter to Win” consumer contest (March 11th-April 11th)
– Grand Prize: 2 tickets to the NYC premier of Prince Caspian the movie.
– 1st Prize: A Narnia treasure chest filled with Narnia books, games, toys, plush, costumes.
– 2nd Prize: A complete library of Prince Caspian movie tie-in books.
– 3rd Prize: A Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Wii video game.
– Online advertising on nick.com and nickjr.com (1,080,000 impressions).
– NeoPets.com interactive game: “Which character are you?” for kids on NeoPets.com with advertising and links to the microsite, trailer and special features.
– Multiple partnerships with major online portals beginning with Yahoo! Kids (4 million unique visitors each month) to feature e-cards from the Pevensie children, and KOL, the kids division of America Online, (1.2 unique visitors each month) which will offer a read-a-long of a chapter a week with prizing.

In 2005, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ film was a huge success, earning more than $750 million worldwide, second only to ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’ as the top box office that year. Disney’s own research showed that the Narnia books were clearly a major driver of ticket sales-with the release of the movie HarperCollins sold more than 17 million units in the U.S. alone.

Clive Staples Lewis, known as Jack to his friends, was born in 1898. Lewis and his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, were part of the Inklings, an informal writers’ club that met at a local pub to discuss story ideas. Lewis’s fascination with fairy tales, myths, and ancient legends, coupled with inspiration drawn from his childhood, led him to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the best-loved books of all time. Six further books followed to become the immensely popular The Chronicles of Narnia. The final title in the series, The Last Battle, was awarded the Carnegie Medal, one of the highest marks of excellence in children’s literature.

HarperCollins Children’s Books is one of the leading publishers of children’s books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many timeless treasures-Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Where the Wild Things Are; and popular new classics-A Series of Unfortunate Events, Warriors and Fancy Nancy. HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. You can visit HarperCollins Children’s Books at http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com and HarperCollins Publishers at http://www.harpercollins.com.

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HarperCollins is releasing some Prince Caspian Activity Books, and they’ve given us two Exclusive Sneak Peeks at those books to share with all of you. Take a look!

The attached children’s activity PDFs (for the younger Narnia cognoscenti, aged 5-8) are the first of a series of interactive materials to be released on the HarperCollins Prince Caspian microsite, www.discovernarnia.co.uk. They will go live on the site on Monday 17th March.

These snippets come from the Prince Caspian Puzzle Book (film tie-in edition) and the Prince Caspian Colouring and Activity Book (film tie-in edition) – both titles will be released on the 5th May 2008 at £3.99 each. The Colouring and activity book includes a movie cover still, poster and crayons, and the Puzzle book comes with a free gel pen. I’ve also attached the cover images here below which you are welcome to use on your site. For the latest info and images on further up-coming Prince Caspian titles see http://www.discovernarnia.co.uk/books.html.

Prince Caspian Colouring and Activity Book (PDF)

Prince Caspian Puzzle Book (PDF)

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C. S. Lewis’s classic novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was recently voted the best children’s book of all time, and with the new Narnia film Prince Caspian out this summer, 2008 will be a big year for the author’s fans.

To celebrate, publishers HarperCollins employed Diane Simpson, a professional graphologist, to analyze samples of his handwriting, taken from some of his letters. She did not know whose script she was studying.

Here are her results.

“At first glance this small, neat script appears to trot unprepossessingly across the page. His exceedingly small personal pronoun does indeed suggest that this man is a modest individual; but being modest does not mean ineffectual.

“There is evidence of strong personal discipline in this angular, firm script. Here we have a man who is far more likely to harbour a preference for detailed, factual understatement than ‘in your face’ floridity of wording.

“It seems to me that he takes himself rather seriously. He requires no outside criticism as he provides more than enough for himself. He is self-critical and self-monitoring… he really cares about getting things right. I don’t think he’s shy – but he chooses to keep himself to himself.

Read the rest at TimesOnline

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Rediscover the magic of Narnia – the original fantasy adventure.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis has been voted the Best Children’s book of all time in a UK survey of over 4,000 parents.

The Chronicles of Narnia have enchanted generations of readers and in May 2008 HarperCollins publish a host of official tie-in books in advance of the release of the eagerly awaited movie sequel to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe: Prince Caspian (Disney and Walden Media).

Find out more at the official HarperCollins Narnia microsite – launched today – at www.discovernarnia.co.uk

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HarperCollins will launch a global marketing and PR campaign to to promote its tie-in publishing programme to the forthcoming second Narnia film.

The publisher is launching a “read it before you see it” campaign, before “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” is released in the UK on 27th June, to promote is various tie-ins, which include activity, puzzle and colouring books, young reader editions and new titles including The Chronology of Narnia, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Official Illustrated Movie Companion and The Crafting of Narnia, among others.

HC will concentrate on digital marketing and social networking, with the creation of a dedicated microsite (www.discovernarnia.co.uk) to go live on 21st February, the launch of a flash game, and Prince Caspian Facebook and Bebo profile pages.

Alison Ruane, HC children’s marketing director, said: “Building on the success of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, we are focusing our communications firmly on digital channels in the lead up to the Prince Caspian film release. By tapping into social networks, on-line communities and existing fan forums we intend to convert Narnia film-goers into fan of the books on a global scale.”

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