The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

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1. 1. The book tells you Aslan is not safe, but he is good. What does 'not safe' actually cost anyone in this story — and is that answer the same for Edmund as for Susan?

2. 2. Edmund betrays his family for sweets and status. Why does the book forgive him so completely, and does that forgiveness have a price the others notice?

3. 3. Is the White Witch a political villain (an occupier who ends Christmas) or a mythological one (winter itself)? Which reading makes her scarier?

4. 4. The Deep Magic and the Deeper Magic resolve the plot legally rather than militarily. What is Lewis arguing about rules, and who wrote them?

5. 5. Susan and Lucy watch the night on the Stone Table; the boys sleep. What is the book doing with gender in that scene, reading it now?

6. 6. The children rule Narnia for years and return as children with no time passed. Is that a mercy or a loss — and what does the last page want you to feel about growing up?

7. 7. Who in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe would you want as a friend, who as an ally, and who would you cross the street to avoid?

8. 8. Was there a scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe you had to put the book down after? What made it land so hard?

9. 9. What question do you wish the author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had answered — and do you think the silence was deliberate?

10. 10. Read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe again in ten years: what do you predict will hit differently, and why?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe runs about 38,000 words - roughly 172 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our Chronicles of Narnia books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

The Odyssey questions, Moby-Dick questions, Don Quixote questions, Alice in Wonderland questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions