Re: Is this book appropriate for 4th graders?



Penny Gaines wrote:
Clisby wrote:



Penny Gaines wrote:

[snip]

Not according to Tolkein: he thought teenagers shouldn't read Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is aimed at a younger audiance though.


I'm curious - did he say why he thought teenagers shouldn't read it? I read it when I was 14 or 15, and loved it. (If I had found it boring, I wouldn't have read it.)

Clisby

FWIW, I didn't get LotR until I read it in my thirties: when I read it
in my teens, I just didn't get it.


I know I read it on the web somewhere, but there is so much stuff on the
internet about LotR that I can't find anything more precise then:

"One of Tolkien's common laments about TLoTR is that it was perceived of as being reading "meant for young children""


Oh, I'm quite sure Tolkien wasn't writing it for young children; but that's not the same as thinking teenagers shouldn't read it. I've read LOTR at least a half-dozen times, and certainly I got more out of it at 35 (probably the last time I read it) than at 15. But even at 15, I was enthralled.

Clisby

There were a lot of people who said they had read it too young. I read it because it was a book a lot of my friends had read and liked, but it was very much a case of making myself read it. I re-read it in my
thirties - expecting to dislike it again - because I wanted to read it
before I saw the films. This time I was amazed at the depth of detail
in the landscapes and the whole broad sweep of the tale.

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