Reading The Hobbit Aloud

[Bullgrit]

I've started reading The Hobbit to my young boys each night before bed. It's hard to read that text aloud. I remembered that LotR was dense with archaic language, but There And Back Again is supposedly a children's book, right?

Have any of you tried reading passages from this book out loud? How do you sound? Do the long sentences and archaic structure trip you up? Do Brits have an easier time with the text than, say, a good ol' boy Southerner with a drawl?

How about this text in other languages? How does it translate? Is the sentence structure just as complicated?

Bullgrit

 

[RangerWickett]

My mom read The Hobbit to me when I was 7. I can't remember whether she mispronounced or stumbled over things, and neither will your kids. They'll just remember that you told them a great story, and in a few years they'll be reading it themselves. Mission accomplished.

 

[Umbran]

I read The Hobbit (in fact, the LotR trilogy as well) to my wife aloud.

It takes a bit of practice, and you will stumble occasionally, but after doing it for a while, you get a feel for the rhythm and flow, and it goes more easily.

Hint: read the chapter to yourself before reading it to them, so you aren't surprised by it.

 

[Mark]

Pick up the audio book and you should be able to catch on to the tone and cadence.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Pick up the audio book and you should be able to catch on to the tone and cadence.

Yep. I listen to it regularly. It may be good editing, but it certainly seems like it can be done well.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Do Brits have an easier time with the text than, say, a good ol' boy Southerner with a drawl?

I don't know how it is comparatively, but I'm a Brit and I don't notice anything strange about reading it aloud. Maybe it suits my British cadence well?

 

[Lhorgrim]

I tried reading it to my 5 year old son, but he just couldn't stay interested through the meeting with the dwarves. All of the introductions and different colored cloaks and similar names had him confused and distracted.

I gave it up, but I'll try again when he's older.

My reading probably didn't help. I had to break for breath in the wrong places. That really messed up the flow of the story.

 

[billd91]

I read a ton of things to my kids for bedtime and have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, and the whole Harry Potter saga MANY times.

It gets easier the more often you do it. And even though the stuff by Tolkien is a bit more challenging, I find I really enjoy the richness of the language and how it sounds when read. I have no idea if the kids care about that as much as I do, but they ask for those stories specifically, so it must work for them.

 

[bento]

I finished reading The Hobbit to my eight year old son about three weeks ago. We started it last year, and while it picked up quickly, we lost steam around the time the party got to Beorn's home. We re-started around winter break and made it through to the end, I found the second half went slower than I remembered reading as a kid.

While I was intimidated by the length of the songs/poems, I found the rythm quite easy to get into. The most difficult part was the long, run-on sentences. My son would sometimes ask me a question while I was in mid-sentence and I had trouble re-finding where I left off at.

Speaking of reading as a kid, I read it about age 11 with the 1970s hard cover edition that included the animated movie stills. I consider the book a personal crucible of reading. Before then I could never sustain interest in a novel and I remember renewing it several times to keep at it. Although the pictures (and memories of the cartoon) were somewhat of a crutch, I was able to finding the patience in myself to read something this good. Since then I found reading easier and more enjoyable.

I'm glad I was able to share this experience with my son.

 

[Ampolitor]

oh man

Well it just can't be as bad as the Dr Seuss books!