An Unexpected (But Long-Awaited) Journey
I bought this book before my daughter was born; I wanted her to have her own copy, and some stories are better when read from between hard covers. I remember her pulling it off her shelf when she was about four, and we looked at the illustrations together, leading to the sudden appearance of pseudo-dwarves in her own fantasy world of Monstervores--but she wasn't ready to visit Middle-Earth yet.
This week, it's finally been time for her Unexpected Journey. She enjoyed Bilbo's hobbit-hole and Gandalf's smoke rings, delighted in the dwarves' songs over dinner, and cried out when it seemed like Bilbo might miss out on an adventure.
Once Bilbo caught up, she decided that there weren't nearly enough girls on the journey, and declared that every dwarf except Thorin would theretofore be a girl, and I should start using female pronouns for them. She wasn't wrong, and I did my best to comply.
When Bilbo got nabbed by the trolls she wasn't particularly worried, guessing the possible solution far ahead of time thanks to her copy of "Seven Ways to Trick a Troll", but she delighted in Rivendell and thought the dwarves probably should have stayed. Never a fan of thunder, the mountain giants caused her some distress, but that was nothing compared to when the goblins stole and ate the party's ponies; we had to stop reading for a while while she wept, and only telling her she and her horse-loving heart would be welcomed among the Riders of Rohan managed to calm her down.
Tonight we finally arrived at Chapter V, "Riddles in the Dark". Despite her love of riddles--and maybe because of it--I've always stayed quiet about this part of the story, and she loved that riddles might be used to settle matters between Bilbo and Gollum rather than swords, similar to the riddle-battles her Monstervores fight against the dream creatures. Amusingly, she agreed with Gollum that Bilbo's final riddle wasn't a fair one, even if she was relieved that Bilbo has escaped.
I love reading to her, not just because I get to revisit old favorites, but because reading aloud slows down my usual too-fast reading speed, and reading in characters' voices helps me find emotions in the writing that I've sometimes glossed over in the past. I know that at some point these nights will end, and she won't want or need me to read to her anymore...but I'm glad we managed to squeeze in a journey There and Back Again before that day comes.
