When I was a Director of Children’s Ministry for a church the kids absolutely loved coloring the pages from the Narnia coloring book as I read them The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I thought it would be a great idea to ask an artist to draw coloring pages for the children’s stories by George MacDonald. Children are visual learners, and many of the kids in my church were fidgety when I read to them. So I started having them color while I read them C.S. Lewis. My own kids amazingly sat still, listened, and remembered the MacDonald children’s stories I had read to them. So I thought it would it be a great idea to have a visual aid that might prompt questions and interest in the stories. The pages I’ve created were inspired by The Princess and Curdie, The Princess and the Goblin, Little Daylight, The Light Princess, and At the Back of the North Wind. You can see the first set here.

Here are a few more for your kids to color:

The last one above has the most significance to me. This is the Light Princess sleeping. But it can also refer to Lilith’s sleeping death at the end of Lilith by George MacDonald. Also it can refer to Arwen dying after Aragorn dies in Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. “Arwen does indeed die of a broken heart after Aragorn's death.” Also it refers to the part in the Little Daylight where MacDonald refers to a princess sleeping, and he is referring to Sleeping Beauty. So it’s like the sleep of death and then waking up to the Prince Jesus. So it’s like the bride of Christ, the church, sleeping until the return of Christ.

Rev. Dr. John McNeill said the scene reminded him of Millais’s Ophelia. Below you’ll find an image of that painting. Maybe MacDonald drew from inspiration from Shakespeare!