The Hobbit

An excellent book! As the prequel to the greatest fantasy work of all time, I was eager to read it, despite it being billed as “children's fantasy,” and it didn't disappoint me. It definitely fits the bill as a work aimed at kids, with contemporary comparisons for children to understand certain things, along with outright shattering the fourth wall, using “I” and “you” quite liberally in addressing the reader. Despite this, I enjoyed it. Perhaps this is because I knew this going in that it was aimed at children, unlike the later books. And Tolkien was able to stuff the story very well into 300 pages. I have seen the three movies and wondered how all the stuff that was in some 9 hours on screen would be squeezed into 300 pages - knowing that there was quite a bit in the movies that wasn't in the book. He didn't disappoint, even when the book got short and the Battle of the Five Armies still hadn't happened.

Overall an excellent book! While I'm not sure what specific ages I would recommend this book to, it does fit for kids. That being said, some parts of it do seem to be aimed at different aged kids from other parts, and I'm not just referring to the events, but also the sentence structure and interjections. The later sections seemed to be slightly more rushed and yet serious, which is part of why I can't decide what specific age this book seems to be aimed at. I also, however, suspect that different books would have been aimed at kids in 1937 than would be today, or even back when I was little. But definitely, something parents could read with their child.