Timothy Wright, age 13, of Enid, Oklahoma, for his question:

Was Dracula a real person?

Count Dracula did have a real life counterpart, a very cruel man who lived hundreds of years ago, but the Dracula we think of belongs to the never never world of imaginary characters. He was the main, spooky character in a book by an English writer named Brain Stoker. Such tales may be called escape literature because they take us from the world of reality. They come in two styles. Dracula is a hob goblin horror type story, aimed to fill us with fake fear. The other type is well represented by the exciting adventures of King Arthur's noble knights. Your award, The Chronicles of Narnia, belongs in this second group.

The seven books, neatly boxed, were written by Clive Staples Lewis, a British author of note who died in 1973. The fanciful tales are crammed with delightful adventures which of course never possibly could happen. They are, one might say, a young person's version of the King Arthur type tales. Lewis wrote them for his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield.