Is Lord of the Rings ok for an 8 year old?

Totally opposite themes though, Narnia is about Christianity and God/Jesus, in Dark Materials someone wants to kill God and the author is well known anti-Christian/anti religion

How about the Narnia series? I loved them at her age. I was very much a precocious reader and like others, I could never get into LOTR. I always felt a bit guilty about it, like I should read it because I was capable and I liked fantasy, but I just found it such hard going.

When she's a bit older His Dark Materials will be great, but I think she'd need to be secondary age to get the most from it because of the older themes.

I read Lord of the Rings before the Hobbit and both before secondary school.

DD1 read it at about 8. As others have said it's not inappropriate, some scary bits, some deaths. Some of the poetry may not appeal.

You could try reading it to her, see how it goes

The books, as ever, are better than the films

I haven't re-read LOTR for a few years and along with the Wind in the Willows (another book she may like) will be doing this soon. I haven't re-read the Narnia Chronicles in ages, my copies have disintegrated.

It's a more difficult read (and bits of it are like trudging through treacle Tom Bombadil I'm looking at you) - I adored the hobbit and struggled with LOTR at about the age of 8. It took me a few goes as I wanted to love it - I probably finally finished it about 10. But i don't think it ruined it for me - I just eventually got it. I was a very precocious reader.

other books are the Dark is Rising series - highly recommend.

There's nothing unstable, bit my (then) 8yo who loved the hobbit only made in about 3 chapters in, it's pretty heavy going.

I don’t think it’s unsuitable it’s jut quite heavy going for an 8 year old, but no reason not to try it if she’s enthusiastic

LOTR is a harder read than the Hobbit, especially as it takes bloody ages to get going. I tried and failed to read it many times in my teens (despite having loved the Hobbit from ~age 8). When the first film came out I had more faith that something would eventually happen, and gave it a go, and enjoyed it - but I was 18 by then!

I'd recommend Watership Down by Richard Adams. My copy has a quote that says "Mr Adams wanted to write a 'proper grown-up novel for children', and that is exactly what he has achieved" - I concur!

Edit to add: Watership Down is very similar to the Hobbit in terms of the "small group set out on a journey, and have adventures along the way". If she enjoyed that aspect of the Hobbit then Watership will likely go down well. The use of language is wonderful too. I still get shivers when I think of "there's a large dog loose in the woods".

I tried reading lord of the rings in my late teens after loving the films but it was so difficult to get in to. So long and could not concentrate or follow what was going on at all.

The hobbit is completely different, straightforward accessible adventure story

I agree. I read The Hobbit aged about ten and loved it. Lord of the Rings is better left till about 16.

One of the best books ever written (as you can probably tell from my username I’m a fan 😁). It is aimed at older people than the hobbit though, so an 8 year old may find it a little hard to understand. But then again they may not!

There is a version with Andy Serkis reading it as well. He is good doing the voices! It is over 60 hours long though

Personally I think it is fine. Far, far too young to watch the films though so I wouldn't entertain that.

She might enjoy
Percy Jackson series, Katherine Rundell, His Dark Materials [but it's quite dark I think]

I love the Hobbit and LOTR (am constantly listening to Andy Serkis' audiobook reading of it) but agree that LOTR is better left until 12/13.

If she likes poetry she might enjoy The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, which is a standalone book of poems and songs, and she will meet Tom again in LOTR (although he is massively annoying). Farmer Giles is fun, and Smith of Wootton Major is also very good.

@MrsAvocet I read somewhere that Tolkien and Lewis once went to a party both dressed as polar bears. It was not actually a fancy dress party....

We read it to each of ours when they were about that age, even though they could technically have read it themselves. It took a year or so on each reading but both of them have such strong memories of that time.

I agree with the majority - leave LOTR for a few years. I was exactly the same as your DD. I was an avid reader as a child and loved The Hobbit at about the age she is now. But LOTR was too long and the language too difficult for me so I gave up and it was a long time before I tried again. I think my own DS read it in his early teens which is a lot more appropriate I think. As others have said it's not the story as such, though it's fairly complex and there are some scary parts, it's more the style. I think people often think it's just a continuation of The Hobbit because they've seen the films, but they're very different and the films, though I love them, are a much simplified version of LOTR. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a children's book so it's much more accessible to young readers even though of course plenty of adults love it too!
Has she read the Narnia books? They were favourites of mine at that age. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were friends with shares interests in mythology etc and were writing in the same era. Though in many ways their work is very different I think there are similarities too and I certainly saw them as the same "type" when I was a child.

A lot depends on your child - her maturity in terms of handling more complex plots, and whether she will cope with what is undoubtedly a darker book in terms of its premise. The Hobbit is a children's treasure hunt - the Lord of the Rings is much more adult concepts in terms of good v. evil / good turning to evil / death / redemption / sacrifice / etc.

Having said that I was 7 when I read it and like a previous poster, I re-read it every couple of years - and did so a couple of months ago... I think that when I first read it I didn't take it all in at the adult level, and so gained more from it over the years, but I still enjoyed it - it is still a tale of magical beings with all sorts of things going on...

why not read it together?

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, first in a series of 'chronicles'

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Tolkien wrote a lot of other children's stories which she might enjoy. These include -

Sir Gawain & The Green Knight

Farmer Giles of Ham

Leaf by Niggle

Mr. Bliss

Roverandom.

Other books I'd recommend are Howl's Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, and the Redwall books by Brian Jacques (I've actually met him. He came to my primary school to give a talk on his books in the late 90s. He was such a lovely man bless him).

Lord of the Rings is my favourite book (and films) ever.

However I didn't see the films or read the book until I was 13 and I think I would have struggled with the language if I was a bit younger. There is nothing inappropriate in the story for younger children but the writing style can be quite heavy going and might be difficult for kids to read and fully understand properly.

I wouldn't put her off though just explain it is more suitable for teenagers and she will enjoy it more if she waits a few years before reading it, maybe when she is around 12/13 years old. This might seem like a lifetime away to an 8 year old though haha.

I remember liking the Deptford Mice books by Robin Jarvis (they were pretty scary though) and the Redwall books by Brian Jacques.

I read it at 8. There is death, but there is also death in the Hobbit, Thorin dies, as do Fili and Kili. Let her read a few chapters and if the language is too inaccessible, wait a bit. If she likes audiobooks BBC did a dramatised abridged version which is good too.

When I was in primary school my friends and I were all desperately keen to read it because (a) we'd enjoyed the Hobbit, and (b) we were massively impressed with ourselves for being such advanced readers. I think we were 9-10ish. I think I did enjoy it, but at some point during the marathon read it got tidied away and it didn't occur to me to ask my mum or look for it, so I don't think I made it all the way to the end at that point. I still thought it (and I) was amazing though. I think I was mainly reading for the plot, and any romance subplots were too boring for me to take in. I think I would let your DD have a go because precocious readers enjoy being precocious, and are very good at ignoring stuff that's too old for them.

I think there are a lot of other fantasy and sci fi that she might enjoy before moving on up to LOTR

it is much sadder and violent and whilst its climate change rather than war that is the current landscape , if the child is very imaginative it might be too much