With the promise that this was a book that CS Lewis loved, I had high hopes for it. While it did not live up to my hopes, it was still an enjoyable book, even with some of the cliché and trite snippets of themes... children should respect their elders, should appreciate life for all of the work that is needed to be able to live it fully, should not be given too much hot air to put in their own heads.

As a modern parent, there are certainly pieces of this book that I could appreciate... such as the need to teach a child that life is not all fun and games, and that respect is earned and not just given... but at the same time, MacDonald implied that children should not be praised for their little accomplishments, and I could not disagree more. In order to teach a child to say "Thank you" I believe that child needs to hear it. In order for a child to learn to apologize, they need to know that adults can own their mistakes as well.

This book would have gotten higher praise from me were it to concentrate more on the magic of the wise old woman and her ways of teaching the two little girls in the story how to lead a better life rather than repeating the lessons nearly verbatim over and over.

A good, fun read, and something that will likely make me look for more MacDonald, but it did not become one of my prized books. ( )