The Chronicles of Narnia books that make up "The Chronicles of Narnia" are presented here in order of original publication date: "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", completed by the end of March 1949 and published by Geoffrey Bles in the United Kingdom on 16 October 1950, tells the story of four ordinary children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, who have been evacuated to the English countryside from London in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II. They discover a wardrobe in Professor Digory Kirke's house that leads to the magical land of Narnia. The Pevensie children help Aslan, a talking
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe study found that "The Lion" was a common read-aloud book for seventh-graders in schools in San Diego County, California. In 2005 it was included on "TIME"'s unranked list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923. Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association named it one of "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it was ranked number five among all-time children's novels in a survey published by "School Library Journal", a monthly with primarily U.S. audience. A 2012 survey by the University of Worcester determined that it was the second most common book