My son and I just finished The Magician's Nephew as a read-aloud, and we both enjoyed it very much. Neither of us had read any of the Narnia books (or seen the movies), so this was all new territory for us. For my part, I made an effort to ignore the religious overtones and read it as pure fantasy, just as my son was doing -- and it worked. This is a delightful start to the series, and we plan to continue with the Narnia books.