Roverandom

Rating:
Summary: Roverandom - A dog's life
Review: This is a great children's story. As is stated in the introduction, Tolkien created this story about a dog for one of his sons, when he lost his toy dog. The dog in this story (Rover) goes on many fantasy adventures. On his adventures, Rover encounters wizards, and mermaids, and other magical creatures. Throughout the tale Rover is trying to get back to a young boy he met on one of his adventures. The vocabulary in this book is occasionally a little advanced for a young reader. Tolkien always believed in challenging young readers, he felt this is how they got better. Also present are some familiar Tolkien themes, such as a negative portrayal of technology.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful Children's Story
Review: This is a great children's story. As is stated in the introduction, Tolkien created this story about a dog for one of his sons, when he lost his toy dog. The dog in this story (Rover) goes on many fantasy adventures. On his adventures, Rover encounters wizards, and mermaids, and other magical creatures. Throughout the tale Rover is trying to get back to a young boy he met on one of his adventures. The vocabulary in this book is occasionally a little advanced for a young reader. Tolkien always believed in challenging young readers, he felt this is how they got better. Also present are some familiar Tolkien themes, such as a negative portrayal of technology.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely Children's Tale
Review: This lovely little book is similar to the Hobbit in style but shorter and smaller in scope. Great for those who enjoy the Hobbit or Farmer Giles of Ham. Also great for anyone who enjoys lighthearted adventures even if they have not read Tolkien before.

Not similar to the epic grandeur of the Lord of the Rings nor connected to Tolkien's 'Silmarillion' mythology, this book still holds a place in any collection of literature to dazzle and delight.

Rating:
Summary: A child's dream
Review: This story is utterly sweet and endearing. I can't hepl but read it over and over, especially when I've had one of "those days" because this book always picks up my mood.
I especially love the drawing that are put in for certain parts in the book. My favorite one of of "The Man on the Moon" as he looks like Gandalf with the pointed hat!
This is a story that anyone of any age can love and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: IT'S FOR CHILDREN!!!!!
Review: To those who would criticize this lovable little book I say, "Understand a work before you judge it." Maybe you just didn't know, but Tolkien wrote this book to be read aloud to small children. Similarly, The Hobbit was actually written to be read with children. Roverandom is NOT Lord of the Rings, but it is a very good, enthralling little story...

Rating:
Summary: IT'S FOR CHILDREN!!!!!
Review: To those who would criticize this lovable little book I say, "Understand a work before you judge it." Maybe you just didn't know, but Tolkien wrote this book to be read aloud to small children. Similarly, The Hobbit was actually written to be read with children. Roverandom is NOT Lord of the Rings, but it is a very good, enthralling little story...

Rating:
Summary: Return of the Old Prof
Review: Up until relatively recently, Roverandom existed in the minds of Tolkien fans as a mysterious open secret: an unpublished work. For a man whose notes to the milkman and getting-the-pen-to-work scribbles on the inside cover of the Yellow Pages were trumpeted by publishers and family alike as 'masterpieces', this was remarkable. Look the old professor up on Amazon and it's not long before the list of works begins to look significantly desperate (Tales from the Perilous Realm, Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode, Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth, etc.). Did he mean for all this stuff to be plundered for public consumption? So, finding a complete and illustrated work that hasn't seen the light of day in almost 70 years is odd to say the least. The five illustrations were seen in a couple of academic books, and also at the Bodleian Library's centenary exhibition, but the text was unknown until 1997/1998.

The story is based upon an incident that occurred when the Tolkiens were on holiday in the Yorkshire seaside town of Filey, in 1925. Tolkien's four-year-old son lost a small toy dog and became distraught. To console him, his father created a story about a real dog that is magically transformed into a toy and is forced to seek out the wizard who wronged him to be returned to normal. In the course of his search he goes to the Moon and the bottom of the sea and being a mischievous little tyke, gets up to all sorts of adventures. Much like The Hobbit, there are wizards and dragons and huge flesh eating spiders, told here in the singy-songy voice of a good-humoured children's tale. But unlike The Lord of the Rings, this time there is none of the thunder and bombast of, for instance:
"...for answer Gandalf cried aloud to his horse. 'On Shadowfax! We must hasten. Time is short. See! The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan...'

Instead, we get:
"Once upon a time there was a little dog, and his name was Rover. He was very small, and very young, or he would have known better; and he was very happy playing in the garden in the sunshine with a yellow ball, or he would never have done what he did."

Which, frankly, is much better.

Tolkien was only in his early thirties when the first draft was written, and it's full of the sort of easy jokes and casual references a well-read young academic might throw in for his little boy's amusement. Old Mother Hubbard's dog has a walk on part, there's a gentle and affectionate explanation of what happens when we dream, there are sly nods towards his work at Oxford, carrots dangled perhaps to entice his youngsters into enjoying the things he himself loved? Well, possibly.

What we have ultimately is a slight tale - it's only 80 pages long - clearly created for reading aloud at bedtime for young children eager to believe that their toys can become animated and exciting (it'll come as no surprise that Rover can only become 'alive' at night when his owner is asleep) if they allow their imaginations to run riot. And that can't be a bad thing. I also can't find the phrase 'a fairy tale for all ages' in the notes or press blurbs and that's surely a boon. More importantly, it happens to be a handy stopgap when you leave your grown-up book on the bus.

So will I be reading any more JRRT? Has this fired me up to try LotR again after a twenty-year break? Amon Dîn, Eilenach, Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad and the Halifirien?! What do you think?

Rating:
Summary: I was full of wonder over Roverandom.
Review: What a treat! The unpublished works of favorite authors nearly always disappoint. I pick them up in hopes of experiencing a fresh taste at an old table, only to find kitchen scraps intended for the garbage heap. This was not so with Roverandom. The story is a delight. The word play is delicious, with lots of rhyme, rhythm and rutabagas. Children love words like Persia and Pershore, Psamathos or Roverandom, for that matter, that they can roll around in their mouths like a handful of jelly beans. These remind me of the word play in the Alice books or a marvelous picture book I once read to my nephew about a woman named Euphonia. (I wish I could find it, or at least remember the title.) This is a children's book. However, it does not talk down to children, and it has lots of literary references most nine-year-olds would miss. These can be enjoyed by the older reader with a wink from Tolkien. I am at the awkward age. My children, in High school and collage, are too big or too busy to have children's books read to them. And I do not yet have grandchildren to regale with the wonder of books. When I grow out of this stage, Roverandom will certainly be on my list. Until then it makes splendid reading for a Summer afternoon.

Rating:
Summary: Jim Dandy to the Rescue, etc..
Review: Why a ten for a book that is being panned by Kirkus? Why a ten when I only gave Moby Dick an 8 or so?

One must understand what the book is. It is a very delightful tale about a naughty puppy's adventures. For its intended audience- small children- it is a delight to read. My children find it a very happy book and look forward to hearing it.

I agree that it is light fare, but simply to attack this sweet, sincere little tale for children because it is not "literature" or "profound" seems hardly fair, and at worst mean-spirited. I laughed out loud when I read the first page, and that was with a bad sore throat and not feeling well, either.

In its peer group, it certainly outshines very hungry caterpillars and foxes in socks. Two thumbs up.