I have fond memories of reading them when I was younger, but as I think about introducing them to kids I have some thoughts and issues:
- The clear colonial bias - Narnia needing white British rulers to thrive.
- Colorism/Xenophobia/Racism in the Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle.
Do the benefits of a neat magical fantasy world outweigh the issues? How would you approach it?
Absolutely not, I read them again and the subtext is awful. Sexist, racist, white supremacist and the last book is ableist. I think the whole point of the series is to repackage biblical/christian themes so the kids reading it will recognize them in or from Sunday school. Which is a good way to get them engaging with it for sure, if you want to raise your kids christian, but even if that is the case, the bigoted subtext is inescapable and too subtle for kids to engage with critically IMO.
That makes sense. I should probably reread some of them to dispel the childhood nostalgia-glow.