What age to first read The Hobbit to a kid?

[Treewheeler]

I was 10 when we read a chapter in a class compendium story book.
 That one chapter bit deep into my imagination.
About the same time I was reading Alex Halley's 'Roots' about a black afro-american dynasty.
 The Hobbit is essential reading for young minds especially if read aloud by an animated person familiar with the text.
 

[geraldc]

We had the hobbit read to us when we were 7 or 8. When we were 10, we did a bit of it as a school play. The bit were all the dwarves turn up with Gandalf, and they discuss a lot of cakes. I think my dad regarded it as the worst abomination of a school play he was ever forced to sit through (and he was forced to sit through the Philoctetes of Sophocles twice).

I remember the first set text when I was 7 being Stig of the Dump.

[JT]

When I was 8 or 9 we listened to a serialisation on the radio at school. I don't remember if I was bored witless or not but it didn't leave as big an impression as when I read it for myself a few years later, at which time I loved it.

[agagisgroovy]

We once read the opening chapter at school, but I've never been able to read it further. I haven't seen the film, either.

[clarion]

I was put off Tolkein after reading William Morris and realising JRR lifted stuff wholesale...

[rogerzilla]

That's nothing. My dad gave me my first Sven Hassel when I was about 11  .

I used to look at the ultra-violent covers of the paperbacks when I was doing my paper round.  Never read one, but apparently you *can* judge a book by its cover 

[Nuncio]

I was read at at school at age 10/11, I'm guessing in a highly abridged format.  We all liked it.  I read it to my daughter at about 8 and she really loved it, but she loved to be read (and to read herself) pretty much anything then.  And I read it to my boy at about 10.  He wasn't really interested.  But may be that was because I was really struggling to read it by then.

[Regulator]

Rather than reading it to Anders (I presume), why not buy him the CDs of the Radio 4 adaptation that were broadcast in the early 1980s (still available from the BBC web-site or via torrent, if you're that way inclined)?  20 hours of some of the world's greatest actors and actresses performing it.  I can remember it being broadcast on a Sunday morning and the whole family used to stop and listen to it.  Absolutely wonderful!

The great thing about radio is it makes you use your imagination... and I was pleasantly surprised by the films as they accorded to a greater extent with the images I had created when listening to the radio series 20 years ago.

[Phil]

I had it read to me when I was about seven, and read it myself a year later.  I did read a lot as a kid though. 

That's nothing. My dad gave me my first Sven Hassel when I was about 11  .

His foray into children's books wasn't very succesful.

[scott]

Rather than reading it to Anders (I presume),

Yeah, he's the only one who will listen....

why not buy him the CDs of the Radio 4 adaptation that were broadcast in the early 1980s (still available from the BBC web-site or via torrent, if you're that way inclined)?  20 hours of some of the world's greatest actors and actresses performing it.  I can remember it being broadcast on a Sunday morning and the whole family used to stop and listen to it.  Absolutely wonderful!

The great thing about radio is it makes you use your imagination...

That's an interesting idea, although since he's just five, I'm not sure he's ready for extended patient listening. Might work in a couple years, though.

and I was pleasantly surprised by the films as they accorded to a greater extent with the images I had created when listening to the radio series 20 years ago.

Meaning the LOTR films? I was pleasantly surprised (for a film, they did OK), too, although a lot of the lesser scenes that I always liked were cut.

[Regulator]

My little sister was about the same age as Anders when it wa first broadcast.  She would sit still entranced for the whole hour...

[scott]

My little sister was about the same age as Anders when it wa first broadcast.  She would sit still entranced for the whole hour...

That's impressive--maybe we'll give it a try.

Of course, females are just smarter and more mature.

[Regulator]

My little sister was about the same age as Anders when it wa first broadcast.  She would sit still entranced for the whole hour...

That's impressive--maybe we'll give it a try.

Of course, females are just smarter and more mature.

I think that the fact that the actors in the BBC version are so good, it's almost like being read a bedtime story with dad who's able to do lots of voices.

My nephews both loved the CDs when they were younger.  I'd try and get them off them to send to you - but they'd probably kill me.  I know my niece would... 

[scott]

That's OK--I appreciate it, but I'm sure I could turn them up used here somewhere.

All this reminds me, I'll need to show Anders my annotated copy. The introduction was written by one of my professors from Cornell. Another of my (late) professors from there apparently studied with Tolkien himself while working on his PhD.

[bobb]

I was fairly young when I first read The Hobbit. Under 10 I guess. I absolutely loved those books when I was a kid.

Oddly, the first LOTR film is the only film I've been to where I actually walked out. I just didn't *get it* and was just bored. I knew exactly what was going to happen anyway, so it seemed a waste of my time!

I'm sure Anders would be ready now for you to read The Hobbit to him 

Edit: On a side note - I think any kind of violence or more "adult" issues just go straight over a kid's head.....

[tonyh]

Another vote in favour of the LOTR Radio version. Loads better than the recent films.

[Wowbagger]

I have read The Hobbit to kids as a class end-of-day book, but it was pretty tough going in the junior school I was in. I found that the Roald Dahl stories were much better received.

I have also read The Hobbit to a class of secondary school kids - about 12, generally below-average performers, and they seemed to enjoy it. About 10 years later I bumped into one of these chaps in a pub and we got chatting. "I remember you reading us The 'Obbit." said he. I was waiting for the "It was crap" or whatever. However, "Last week, I finished reading the Lord of the Rings. It's the only book I've ever read."

Touching moment.

In answer to the OP, I think it depends on the child and the reader. I don't think either of my daughters have enthused about it, although I'm sure they read it, but my younger son lived and breathed Tolkein. When he was 12 he went to St. Petersburg as part of an English chess excursion and one of the organisers told me afterwards that over the entire week Graham had regaled him with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Things Tolkein.

[HTFB]

My younger sister annotated the scene with fifteen birds in five fir trees in pencil, saying "therefore I hate wolfs". Elsewhere in the book she notes "I hate Miss Clay", which to those with knowledge of the teaching rotas in our primary school implies she was seven or just eight. She must have been reading it quite happily on her own, too.

[alexb]

I read it to my daughter last year, so she would have been 7. She found it difficult to keep track of the dwarves names, Balin and Dwalin and Orin and Borin etc...as did I!

I was also surprised to find that I didn't think it was as well written as I remembered.
I'm looking forward to the film though, Peter Jackson did a fantastic job with LOTR.

[pcolbeck]

Pcolbeck junior read the hobbit at about 9 and LOTR at 10. We usually read him a few pages every night then he would continue on and read a few chapters himself before he went to sleep.