Roverandom

Product Information

The giant, on returning home, relates to his friends that there are no more knights in the Middle Kingdom, just stinging flies—actually the scrap metal shot from the blunderbuss—and this entices a dragon, Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area. The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him. 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."

The adventures of Rover, or 'Roverandom' a he becomes known, include encounters with an ancient sand-sorcerer and a terrible dragon, by the king of wordplay, the story underwent a number of revisions and was originally considered for publication in January 1937, the same year as The Hobbit, was abandoned when the publishers asked instead for a sequel, which culminated in The Lord of the Rings. Roverandom was finally published in 1998. The Man in the Moon - The greatest of all magicians. He gives Rover the name Roverandom, so as not to confuse the two Rovers. That said, one of the things I really, really, really love about Tolkien is that he doesn't pander to his audience. There are words and puns, usages and phrases that one would think that you would have to be older to understand and appreciate. Tolkien, however, does not ever so insult his audience. His complicated words and humorous phrases are intended to be read to (and by, I would assume) young children.

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Just be sure to remind yourself that you are reading a book intended for children, and you shouldn't be ever disappointed.

I enjoyed the other characters very much as well - the sweet, wise, cantankerous, strange, annoying, and foolish characters alike. I especially loved Little Boy Two and the Man in the Moon. Also, Psamathos and, by the end, Artaxerxes. Written for the immediate audience of Tolkien’s children (and, as always, the author himself), Roverandom at heart is a personal story, with references to the Tolkien family and their holiday of 1925. It also contains expressions of Tolkien’s concern about motorcars and pollution, as well as the kind of unrestrained wordplay and allusions such as he loved. I loved the dog Roverandom so very much. He's so sweet, and I enjoyed his point of view and his way of thinking about his experiences and acquaintances. And I loved seeing him grow up and become wiser as the story goes on.I enjoyed the other characters very much as well - the sweet, wise, cantankerous, strange, annoying, and foolish ch Roverandom is the tale which Tolkien told to his son Michael after the four year old lost his favorite toy on a trip to the seaside; that toy was a small leaden dog that soon became the inspiration for what was to become a favorite family story. Perhaps to provide young Michael with an alternate explanation for the dog's disappearance (preferable to that of it being lost forever in the sand and surf), the story centered around the adventures of a live dog named Rover who, after insulting a passing wizard, is turned into a toy dog and taught a valuable lesson: mind your Ps and Qs when interacting with magical beings!