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

[Greenpeanutsnail]

My DD is reading the Hobbit and so far thinks it is the best book she has ever read. She wants to read Lord of the Rings next. Despite loving reading, I’ve never managed to get into Lord of the Rings. I’ve heard it’s a bit more grown up than the Hobbit. Is there anything unsuitable about Lord of the Rings for an 8 year old? I thought here would be a good place to ask! Thank you.

I would say 13 is a more suitable age although I can’t quite say why

Oh, no, OP!

When I was a child, I read The Hobbit and absolutely loved it. My mother took it back to the library and ask the librarian for the Lord of the Rings, which was in the adult library, rather than the children’s library that I belonged to. The children’s librarian said that she’d get it, but she didn’t think I’d like it because it really wasn’t like The Hobbit. I insisted and persisted so I got the Lord of the Rings first volume and I just could not get into it. In fact, I think it’s spoiled it for me into adulthood.

It’s really hard to say no, but the thing is, the Lord of the Rings absolutely is not just a continuation of The Hobbit, either in style or themes.

Sorry.

There's nothing unsuitable at all, but it can be heavy going in places. I think I read it at around 11-12.

Lord of the Rings is great! Completely fine for an 8 year old. In these books “grown up” just means the book is a bit less accessible for children to read - the sentences go on forever, she may find she doesn’t know all the words as some of them are quite archaic, the endless descriptions of the landscape etc. Not that anything inappropriate happens, Tolkien would be rolling in his grave at the suggestion 😂

It depends on the 8 year old. Obviously it was written in the 1940s/1950s and is quite literary, so there's no sex or language issues, but whether parts of it are too scary at that age is hard to say. You know your own child. But I'd agree with previous posters that 12 might be more like it, that was when I read it and I think I had a better understanding of it then that I would have at 8 or 9.

Nothing is inappropriate.

but it’s hard language. I tried at about 8 for the same reasons abs struggled.

She should re-read The Hobbit a few times before she tackles LOTR in secondary school. It's not going anywhere and will be waiting for her when she is ready.

I read it when i was 10 for the first time. But i was a very very precocious reader and even then there were bits of it that just went right over my head.

Plus, and i read it around every other year, the bits with Sam and Frodo just drag on and on and on and on and they still bore me half to death. First time i just skim read until more interesting parts came up.

There is a lot of death and talk of death though, so that may be more of a consideration than the boredom factor.

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

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 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.

Thank you all for your responses! Thats really helpful. I think I will probably explain that Lord of the Rings is very different and was written for adults and give her the option.

Does anyone have any recommendations of books to try for children who enjoyed the Hobbit? She is reading Harry Potter as well, but prefers the Hobbit. Thanks.

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

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.

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).

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

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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?

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.

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 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....

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]

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

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!

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

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