Favorite Books to Teach: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

 

J.R.R. Tolkien's own description for the original edition: "If you care for journeys there and back, out of the comfortable Western world, over the edge of the Wild, and home again, and can take an interest in a humble hero (blessed with a little wisdom and a little courage and considerable good luck), here is a record of such a journey and such a traveler. The period is the ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men, when the famous forest of Mirkwood was still standing, and the mountains were full of danger. In following the path of this humble adventurer, you will learn by the way (as he did) -- if you do not already know all about these things -- much about trolls, goblins, dwarves, and elves, and get some glimpses into the history and politics of a neglected but important period. For Mr. Bilbo Baggins visited various notable persons; conversed with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent; and was present, rather unwillingly, at the Battle of the Five Armies. This is all the more remarkable, since he was a hobbit. Hobbits have hitherto been passed over in history and legend, perhaps because they as a rule preferred comfort to excitement. But this account, based on his personal memoirs, of the one exciting year in the otherwise quiet life of Mr. Baggins will give you a fair idea of the estimable people now (it is said) becoming rather rare. They do not like noise."

I taught this book for years to my incoming Honors 9th Graders. It was one of their summer reading novels and the first unit I taught every year. It is an awesome book for so many reasons. My top five are below.

1. Summer Reading-It's a high interest book and most students are somewhat familiar with the story already, recently anyway. However, it's not like the movies (as all who are real fans are aware), so they can't just watch the movie instead of reading the book. It's not too long, but it does offer enough of a challenge for there to be some meat in there for teaching things like tone/mood, character development, importance of setting, theme, archetype, etc. 

2. Hero's Journey-Here's a great example of a hero's journey. Students find it easy to locate the journey in this book, and it's the big archetype that I teach in ninth grade. 

3. Gateway to LOTR-I'm going to confess here that Lord of the Rings is my favorite book(s) of all time. I am a huge fan from waaaaay back in the day. Usually at the end of our Hobbit Unit, I let my students watch The Fellowship of the Ring. They can see the connections to the book but also the new journey Frodo is going on. 

4. Fantasy Genre-I think this is a terribly neglected genre in most high school classrooms, and I think that is such a shame. It is a genre that led me into more and more reading. 

5. Tolkien Himself-What an interesting guy. And there is so much material out there in which he explains what he meant when he wrote his books. It's a great way to introduce papers with secondary sources using letters from Tolkien to defend their points.

Here is a link to my Hobbit Unit Bundle.