When I read “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” to my kids for the first time, I realized how much crap I’d skimmed over when I was a kid. Sometimes there’s a whole page just describing the fish swimming around. I skipped a lot of stuff.

I did read them “Lord of the Rings.”

I’m sure with another book, of equal length, and even with the same relative amount of narration, she would have been enthralled. It depends on the topic, and on whether she could identify with the characters, or with at least one. The Hobbit is a ripping yarn set in a boys’ club. I wonder what she would have made of Little Women.

I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to my son when he was 6, and his 4-year-old sister wandered across the hall demanding to be included. They both loved it. I had to read until I was hoarse every day. Now, mind you, I skipped bits that were too heavy or long-winded, which as a narrator, you are allowed to do. (In Twain’s case, this was the social criticism department, the graduation speeches, principally.) Reading is a contract between the author and the reader. As readers, and as interpretive readers, we are allowed to bring our needs to the book, and even to leave things out as long as we say, “I’d like to skip this bit because it gets too long and doesn’t do much for the story. Do you want me to read it anyway?” It’s not censorship if the listener knows that there are things missing and has the choice to hear them.

If you want The Hobbit right away in a close to faithful version, there is a pretty good cartoon rendition produced by Rankin/Bass in 1977. It was made for children, and shown on broadcast television, so it’s quite tame. Also musical, though the dwarves do sing a lot in the book as well, and the lyrics in the cartoon are mostly drawn from the book. The characters remind many people my age and older of the American Dental Association’s Saturday morning PSAs for kids: similar illustration style, without the toothbrushes. The voice talent is outstanding.

The cartoon’s script was widely praised, but criticized for the numerous omissions for time, and for the edits to the story made necessary by the omissions. The Lord of the Rings wiki has listed all the changes, but only click on it if you want a summary of the story. No surprises will remain for you after reading the entry there.

When parents come to the library looking for The Hobbit for their children, I inevitably give them Tolkein’s original, which he did consider his work for children. The parents are almost always taken aback, and ask for the shorter version. There isn’t one. We have a chat about Tolkein and his friends, including C. S. Lewis, who also wrote for children in language that modern American children, and especially their parents, consider too challenging. (Lewis has been partially adapted in picture books.) Generally I recommend that the parent get the book anyway and let the child give it a try. Children will often voluntarily work at, and even struggle with, something that has their interest already, which will surprise the parents who want only guaranteed successes for their children. And if the child really can’t master the prose, it’s a great read-aloud.

Audiobooks of The Hobbit are also very well done. I believe there’s at least one that has been done in a full-cast version. It’s like listening to a very long radio play.

Many different attempts at adapting these books to film have been made, with limited success. The rights to the books were challenging. Tolkien sold them early, and they became a commodity in the biz. Peter Jackson finally wound up with the rights to Lord of The Rings and made the blockbuster film trilogy a decade ago.

He then got his hands on the rights to The Hobbit and decided to bring that novel to the big screen. But one movie isn’t enough, is it? Jackson figured this was his last chance to film Tolkien’s world – he’d never get the rights to the other works, held by Tolkien’s estate, who don’t like the adaptations…

However, at the end of the Lord of the Rings is an exensive appendix with all kinds of stuff that happened between the events of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, a sixty year gap. There is all sorts of material there that Jackson did own the rights to, so he decided to make two films out of the Hobbit, filling it out with this other material. Then, after all the filming, he found out he had enough for three movies.

The first part came out last week. The second comes out next Chrismas. And the final part comes out the summer after that.

So, I recommend that if you want to explore, and don’t want to read the books, then start with the movie version of “The Fellowship of the Ring”. Get the Extended Edition DVD. Watch it in widescreen.

No, wait…go see the Hobbit, now, while it is on the big screen. If you are not used to 3D movies, then see it in 2D.

I understand the Hobbit is a trilogy which was converted into movies. If one were going to start with the movies, where would you suggest one start? With which one?

Thanks.