These juvenile movie activity books are almost always the poor cousins when it comes to feature film merchandising products. These low quality booklets often quickly make there way into pound stores, often before the film has even stopped playing at the smaller cinemas around the country.

Brian Sibley is no stranger to C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. In 1985 his Radio 4 adaptation won him the Sony Radio Award. It is without a doubt his genuine interest in this saga which has allowed him to produce such a surprisingly good themed activity book for children in this case.
Anyone who is proud enough to put their name on the front cover is already giving the consumer higher than normal expectations. In this case he has brought younger fans a book that does not disappoint.

Along with the usual maze games and 'spot the difference', and the obligatory pictures to colour in, he has written two short plays among the pages; thoughtfully one for five and the other accommodating just two actors. So, even an only child could potentially get involved with the participation of an eager parent.

Brian Sibley has also put together some out of the ordinary activities such as designing your own Narnian stamps; and even ideas for organising a whole Narnia themed Party, not unusual in itself - the Flower Fairy activity books have done similar, but not with the attention to detail that Brian has included here. Everything from designing party invitations to themed food, such as: The white witche's snow fondants, and Edmund's Turkish Delight, to name but a few. There are lots of fun party game suggestions and even a short composition to be played on the recorder! What a delightful idea!

Naturally there are lots of proposals for things to make such as Peter's shield and a Narnian battle breastplate - which children will love.
This book is packed with so many great games and activities only a few of which I have mentioned here.

Finally on the back page is a fold-out full colour game board for a 'Racing through Narnia' game.

This should have been a model for all future activity books. Sadly all too often it comes down to banging these things out fast to the same tired old format of mazes, word searches and colouring pages. Brian Sibley has shown that they can be so much better. ( )