The Last Battle

    From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-With Eustace and Jill at his side, the King, the noble unicorn Jewel, and a few remaining loyal subjects must stand fast against the powers of evil and darkness and fight The Last Battle to decide the future of this once glorious kingdom.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

The last and perhaps the most mysterious of The Chronicles tells how a simple-minded donkey called Puzzle and a scheming ape named Shift set in motion the final days of Narnia.

Shift dresses the donkey up in a lion skin and pretends that he is Aslan. He lies to the Narnians, saying that Aslan has sold them all to the Calormenes to work as slaves. The truth is that the ape has sold them himself. He also says the evil god Tash is a friend of Aslan. The Narnians, especially the Talking Animals, are puzzle and frightened, but they cannot believe that they are being deceived.

"Please," said the Lamb, "I can't understand. What have we to do with the Calormenes? We belong to Aslan. They belong to Tash ... They say he has four arms and the head of a vulture. They kill men on his altar. I don't believe there is any such person as Tash. But if there was, how could Aslan be friends with him?"
The Ape jumped up and spat at the Lamb.
"Baby!" he hissed. "Go home to your mother and drink milk. What do you understand of such things? But the others, listen. Tash is only another name for Aslan."

With this the ape begins to make use of the selfishness of the dwarfs, the silliness of the ordinary Narnians, the greed of the Calormenes and, finally, the terrible evil of Tash - and this lets loose a flood of destruction over the land.

The many good and brave Narnians fight fiercely under their leader, King Tirian, but in spite of their courage and determination, the end of Narnia is very close. It is then that the real Aslan summons Eustace and Jill, the children from our world, to defend Narnia at the last and most desperate battle.

　　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 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.

1 By Caldron Pool
2 The Rashness of the King
3 The Ape in Its Glory
4 What Happened That Night
5 How Help Came to the King
6 A Good Night's Work
7 Mainly About Dwarfs
8 What News the Eagle Brought
9 The Great Meeting on Stable Hill
10 Who Will Go Into the Stable？
11 The Pace Quickens
12 Through the Stable Door
13 How the Dwarfs Refused to Be Taken In
14 Night Falls on Narnia
15 Further Up and Further In
16 Farewell to Shadowlands