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.