It’s been a bit since I did one of these (and you’ll see why in a minute) but in these posts I hope to share a little about what I am reading with my two children. Not exactly a review but a look at a book we’ve read together and how it worked for us. For context, my daughters are currently 8- and 11-years old. They are both excellent independent readers but we choose to continue our family habit of reading a chapter together before bedtime.
Reading The Lord of the Rings together was definitely a parenting highlight for me. The Hobbit was one of the earliest chapter book read-alouds that we did as a family after we introduced family chapter time, way back when Pearl was 4 and Rose was 2. One of the great benefits of continuing to read aloud together is that we get to share books with them that they are not quite ready to read solo.
While I had expressed my desire to read The Lord of the Rings with them eventually, the kids were the ones who asked last summer to read it together. We agreed that the autumn was a good time for Tolkien and we began The Fellowship of the Ring last September. We read regularly and finally finished The Return of the Kings at the beginning of June.
Were these books as a whole a bit beyond my children at times? Yes. Were they engaged with the story and wanted to keep reading? Yes. We spent months in Middle Earth and with these characters and I think the girls really grew to care about them. They certainly wanted to keep reading.
Tolkien is rightly known for his world-building and this was both an asset and a struggle for our kids. They love book series that really immerse them in a fantasy world and this is something they’re frequently drawn to in their individual reading. I think they got a sense of how influential Tolkien’s work is on so much of what they’ve already read. Sometimes though that level of detail did overwhelm them. While reading about the Council of Elrond, Rose became increasingly frustrated by the confusion of all the different names and keeping track of who was speaking. That was not the last time we had to stop reading and talk it all out and from there forward I tried to make sure I was pausing to check in that Pearl and Rose were following along.
We also made use of the maps that the books helpfully included. This helped us track where the fellowship was, how far they’d come, and where they were aiming. It also helped keep track of all those pesky names. Tolkien often uses multiple names in different languages for one person or place and this can get confusing quickly.
Overall, I’m really glad we got to read these as a family. I hope my girls come back to The Lord of the Rings when they’re older and dive back into this wonderful story. And I hope when they do, they think of our evenings together.
Karissa Reads Books 