J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit

I feel a little like I read this out of order a bit. I picked up The Hobbit after I started The Lord of the Rings trilogy because I didn't realize that it too had been recorded by Andy Serkis. I thoroughly enjoyed his reading of the novel.

I had never read The Hobbit. I had only seen the Peter Jackson films. While I loved The Lord of the Rings, I found myself loving The Hobbit films less. From the community reactions to those films when they came out, I knew that Jackson had embellished the story. I finally dug into the novel to find out how much.

Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit: respectable, normal, and non-adventerous. Gandalf is a wizard who decides to change all of that. After meeting Bilbo in the Shire one morning, Gandalf secretly invites 12 dwarves to come to Bilbo's house. Once there, they discuss plans to reclaim their ancestral home: The Lonely Mountain. The Mountain is now home to Smaug, the dragon, and they need a burgler to help them find the dragon's weakness. Can Bilbo fill the job?

This is an exciting adventure tale. I love the way that Tolkien used this to introduce The Lord of the Rings and the world of Middle Earth. Bilbo's story is much different from Frodo's. Somehow, even though they're in constant danger, and many of the dwarves are killed in the end, the stakes of this story don't seem as high as Frodo's quest to destroy the ring. The lighthearted tone of the adventure make it a fun read.

I loved getting to know Bilbo and to see what Tolkien really wrote. This book has some violence and the language is still a bit academic, but Tolkien meant this for children. Still, I would say middle school or jr. high teens are probably ready to pick apart the complex language, and would enjoy this story. The upbeat nature, and lower stakes of the story make it less intense, and I think even upper elementary kids would enjoy the story with some assisstance with language depending on where they're at with reading.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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