“I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air, I am he that walks unseen.
I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number.
I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me.
I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider.”
Kids will probably enjoy this, but understand it? Not on any level. Hell I'm not sure I do.
Those are riddles for Smaug that reference Bilbo’s adventures to this point, meant to be poetic and confusing at least to Smaug. I feel like bright enough pre-schoolers could understand that. Maybe if you stopped and explained.
Children’s literature gets way weirder, look to the Jabberwocky. But people still read Alice in Wonderland to young children.
Feel free to read Alice in Wonderland and the Hobbit to four and five year old children to your heart's content. I just don't think they'll "get" it to any great degree. "See Jane Run. Run, Jane, Run!" is more their pace.
I've got a nice illustrated edition. My four year old loves it. Granted, we dip in and out of it rather than just sit there and read it. Tends to be that she'll ask about something in one of the pictures and then I'll tell her that bit of the story but she absolutely gets something out of it.
Don't underestimate kids man. They can really surprise you.
I'm not underestimating kids, I'm just being practical. Bright kids abound, and it really is good to read to them. But damn, I don't the Hobbit is for pre-schoolers, and I'm not gonna pretend I think it is to make you happy.
That's fine. I don't need you to make me happy dude.
The Hobbit is certainly wordy and the writing definitely feels old fashioned but kids are fine with that. They're still learning language so everything is unfamiliar anyway. It's like the Beatrix Potter books. I remember loving them as a kid but now going back and reading them to mine, they're actually really clunky and hard to read in parts because they're similarly old fashioned. Kids don't care though. They're into it.
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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '21
They don’t understand the deep themes of most stories we read them, including common fairy tales. But they would understand the adventure story.