The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

What are you waiting for? Summer is slipping through your fingers! And it's the perfect time to read these books. In fact, little JT is listening to The Hobbit before naptime and bedtime - she even says Bilbo! When I first read the books, in fifth or sixth grade, I skipped over all the descriptive passages. But Tolkien wasn't a professor of language for nothing - this stuff is seriously beautiful - read it out loud if you don't believe me. And even the umpteenth time I re-read Tolkien, I have hard time putting it down. I KNOW what's going to happen next (and you may, or may think you do, from the movies) but that isn't the point. Look for the humor - Gandalf (and everyone else, but Gandalf is funniest) is always making fun of those hobbits. * Already a fan? Re-read it! Already did this summer? Try James A. Owen's Here, There Be Dragons, which includes a lot of Tolkien references. I didn't find it as clever as Owen thinks it is, but it was fun. * I wish I could list all the authors in Tolkien's class, but I think he stands alone. For another beautifully written, read between the old-fashioned language for the humor, magic-infused, action doesn't pick up until at least a hundred fifty-pages but you're still interested all the way along, epic book, try Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.