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I'm very surprised (and pleased!) to see my favorite YA author, John Bellairs, show up on here, although I am a little questioning of The Lord of the Rings for
by mdanger 14y ago
I'm very surprised (and pleased!) to see my favorite YA author, John Bellairs, show up on here, although I am a little questioning of The Lord of the Rings for kids under 10 - it's been a long, long time since I read them, but I wonder if someone that young would be able to keep track of the different characters' journeys.
- jdpage 14y agoKids are often smarter than you give them credit for, especially if they are engaged in the subject matter. Kids which are obsessing over something have remarkable retentive abilities.
- evoxed 14y agoIt's worth it. A great aunt bought me the Hobbit when I was around five, and I immediately took to the whole Lord of the Rings series, Silmarillion, etc. By 10 I'd read every Tolkien book I had ever heard of, including ones by his son that I didn't even realize. My best friend to this day was just as freakish, and it turns out not only was it pretty much what taught us how to read, but we kept track of many of the characters and stories the same way– by drawing all of it. Personally, without them I don't know if I would have appreciated books, period. Some kids will go to great lengths to match with the things they're given, so there's certainly no harm in gifting a copy of at least the Hobbit and testing whether or not they'll really enjoy it.
- erikwecks 14y agoYeah, I got some heat from other GeekDads when I put that on the original GeekDad list. But truth be told we have now read LOtR to two 8 year olds. The hard part is to get them to Rivendell. Once there the story takes over and it works. I included it because it is what _I have_ read aloud to two of my kids. Erik Wecks (GeekDad)