What Parents Should Know
Starts slowly, but the hobbits are an appealing group of
unlikely heroes, and the epic story of their role in a quest to
preserve their world is full of humor, terror, and
adventure.
Common Sense Media Review
With this spectacular tale, Oxford University professor J.
R. R. Tolkien invented not only a language and a land in which
it was spoken but also--unintentionally--a new literary
genre.
Building on Western myths, legends, folklore, and fairy tales, as well as literature such as George MacDonald's fanciful tales (The Princess and the Goblin, for example), Tolkien was perhaps the first author to create a fully realized, authentic-seeming world. Brimming with various cultures and creatures engaged in an existence that accepted magic, it is as fully realized as our own.
And what is it that draws generations of adolescents--and latecomer adults--to Middle-earth? Epic battles, yes, but inner turmoil too. Overwhelming forces of evil, but temptation and greed within oneself as well. Potent sorcery, but perhaps more so the magical spells of friendship and loyalty and devotion.
This is the kind of story the word epic seems to have been invented for, but it's also an intimate tale about the bonds between companions and about the human instinct to do the right thing. From these simple features it derives its true power.
Fans new and old might look not only to newcomers such as the blockbuster Harry Potter series, which begins with Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, but also to old standbys such as Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain (first volume of five: The Book of Three), which is loosely based on Welsh myth. There's also C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia (first volume of seven: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), an allegory with Christian undertones that also entertains regardless of readers' religious beliefs.
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