16th Annual
Washington County READ

Once Upon a Wardrobe

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If you—or your children or grandchildren—loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis, you’ll be enthralled by Callahan’s novel that unravels the origin of the beloved fantasyland Narnia. Eight year-old George begs his older sister, Megs, a student at Oxford, to ask Lewis, an English professor, where Narnia comes from—is it real? Lewis declines to answer directly, instead giving her a map of clues by telling stories of his own life. Each time Megs returns home to share with George, they begin her retelling with “once upon a wardrobe, not very long ago, and not very faraway.”

But Once Upon a Wardrobe is much more than Narnia, or Lewis’s life. The reader learns George is gravely ill, and sees into the world beyond his bedroom window through his imagination. With evocative imagery spanning the novel, Callahan writes, “hours in bed have taught George how to find the soft edges of the facts and drop himself into the worlds he hears about or reads of. He closes his eyes, sets his mind’s eye on the words, and floats on them like a raft.”

However, the ever rational Megs, a math major, firmly believes that imagination is just for children’s books. Lewis patiently explains the significance of imagination versus reason; but George tells her quite bluntly, “you think the world is held together by some math formula…I think the world is held together by stories.”

Callahan weaves together the words of Lewis and George as they lure Megs into understanding that stories allow us to “see with other eyes and feel with other hearts.” Though Lewis published his Narnia series soon after the strife of World War II ended, his words sculpted by Callahan are prescient: “reason is how we get to the truth, but imagination is how we find meaning.”

Once Upon a Wardrobe is a delightful read. But perhaps Callahan’s fiction can take us beyond the book we hold in our hands. Maybe among the schisms of this modern world of 2024, her storytelling will prompt our imaginations to soar, spur our hearts to understand others, and allow our minds to discover meaning we didn’t know existed. Hopefully, our children and grandchildren may then benefit long after we’ve read them stories about the wondrous land of Narnia.
The Tender Land is available for purchase at The Book Nook, 212 W. Alamo Street in downtown Brenham.

The Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library has The Tender Land as an e-book.

Read an interview

Patti Callahan discusses Once Upon a Wardrobe with Lancia E. Smith of Cultivating Oaks Press. (Web page opens in a new window.)

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Tuesday, October 8, 2024:
The READ Event

Join Lifetime Learning and Patti Callahan on October 8th at 5:30pm for our author presentation, dramatic reading, book signing, and refreshments at Unity Theatre, downtown Brenham. This is our gift to the community; there is no charge.

The Author

PicturePatti Callahan
A life-long reader of the works of C.S Lewis, Patti Callahan has had an equally long fascination with myth and origin stories. Perhaps her previous career as a pediatric clinical nurse specialist or her experiences as a mother and grandmother gave rise to her empathic rendering of her characters George and Megs.

Callahan grew up in Philadelphia and south Florida; attended Auburn University for her nursing degree and Georgia State for a masters in child health. She began her writing career after leaving nursing and raising her family; though in the secret recesses of her mind, she’d always wanted to be a writer!
 
A New York Times best-selling author of seventeen books since 2004, Callahan has been the recipient of many awards, including the Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year in 2020.

She writes historical novels under the name Patti Callahan, including Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Surviving Savannah, and her latest The Secret Book of Flora Lee. She also pens Southern contemporary fiction as Patti Callahan Henry. She is co-founder and co-host of the web series and podcast Friends and Fiction, which showcases storytelling, authors, and independent bookstores.

She lives with her husband, Pat Henry, in Mountain Brook, Alabama, near Birmingham.
Previous Community Reads:
2023:  This Tender Land by William Kent Kreuger
2022:  West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
2021:  The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
2020:  Getting Life by Michael Morton
2019:  The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
2018:  The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell
2017:  News of the World  by Paulette Jiles
2016: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza
2015: My Boys and Girls Are in There by Ron Rozelle
​2014: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni
2013: The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber
2012: The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
2011: One Ranger: A Memoir by H. Joaquin Jackson and David Marion Wilkinson
2010: Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
2009: Final Salute by Jim Sheeler