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National Poetry Day 8th October

www.nationalpoetryday.co.uk

National Poetry Day encourages everyone to read, enjoy, and share poetry. This year's theme is Heroes and Heroines!

Tolkien wrote many poems and 'songs'. Those that are included in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbitare important to the stories but they are also beautiful, complex, moving, evocative, and often tell the stories of Heroes and Heroines Tolkien's poetry often gets overlooked, and if you haven't already discovered it in The Lord of the Rings, I would recommend starting with The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Besides the rhyming story of Tom himself, you will find Errantry - a story of a magical knight. The poem uses a wonderfully intricate set of rhymes which introduce readers to an ancient kind of poetry used by Welsh bards! Look out for half-rhymes such as 'oranges and porridge'; 'marjoram and cardamom'; and what are the Dumbledors doing?

If you like something more serious, why not find 'Where is the Horse and the Rider' in The Lord of the Rings. It echoes some of the oldest poetry in the English language.

All Tolkien's poems rhyme and include wonderful images. They tell stories and use the English language with a simple flair as well as including a few old and strange words. This makes them ideal for anyone who doesn't enjoy modern poetry.

National Bookstart Day 9th October

http://www.nationalbookstartday.org.uk/

National Bookstart Day encourages families to enjoy reading together every day. It especially encourages reading to little children - it is never too soon to introduce them to reading.

It is said that "children who enjoy books every day do far better when they start school." (Rosemary Stones, Director of Bookstart) The reading can be suited to the time you have: stories of all kinds are good, but so are songs, and rhymes. Tolkien's short stories and poems are fun and intriguing for all ages: perfect for sharing with your children!

I would recommend Roverandom - it is suitable to read to little children. This is the story of a toy dog lost on the beach, and his strange adventures with the Man in the Moon. Older children will also enjoy reading and talking about this story.

For older children, Farmer Giles of Ham - in the wake of Harry Potter, many children can recognise Latin when they see it. This story of a brave farmer, his talking dog, some cowardly knights, and the magnificent dragon Crysophylax Dives is full of comedy, and a few bits of Latin to add interest.

Smith of Wootton Major - is less comic and even more magical, especially in the edition that includes Pauline Baynes's delightful illustrations. A story best suited to older children, it sees the least likely child given a chance to shine.

And of course, last but by no means least, The Hobbit. The stirring adventure of Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves on their quest for the treasure stolen by Smaug the dragon, it introduces children and adults alike to the background story of the finding of the One Ring. It is suitable for everyone except the youngest children, and will give you all lots to talk about!

Tolkien's poetry often gets overlooked, and if you haven't already discovered it, I would recommend The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Besides the rhyming story of Tom himself, you will find

All Tolkien's poems rhyme and include wonderful images. They tell stories and use the English language with a simple flair as well as including a few old and strange words. This makes them ideal for showing children that language can be fun. Besides being good fun, making reading together a part of your daily family time encourages children to communicate with confidence and to enjoy language in all forms.

A Tolkien Day in your Library or School.

In the UK, you can borrow the Tolkien Society's touring exhibition (a series of ten panels, for fitting to 'velcro'-type loop boards). A charge is made to cover transport costs.

Tolkien's texts are all great to read aloud. You could encourage people to 'read their favourite bits', or just start at page one and go on until closing time ....

Tolkien always inspires creativity: drawing and making projects can be popular (please remember to photograph them, and send us a picture for this website!)

Have a feast! (we plan to add a recipe page later).

The Lord of the Rings and Libraries

Skies of Rohan - the Idaho and Montana Tolkien Society in the USA, recently attended a statewide librarian conference held in Montana. About 250 - 300 libraries were represented at the conference, including those at city, county, elementary school, junior high school, high school and university levels. Skies of Rohan had a table in the exhibitors section that displayed a large selection of books by and about J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, the books by Christopher Tolkien, Tom Shippey and Brian Sibley, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, The Complete Tolkien Companion, The Origins of Tolkien's Middle-earth for Dummies, etc., etc.) and several posters from the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies.

Our intent at attending the conference was two-fold - to inform more libraries about our book donation program (we donate copies of The Lord of the Rings books and movie posters to school libraries) and to acquaint the librarians with the vast array of books written by J.R.R. Tolkien and those written about the author and his books. Our table proved to be extremely popular with the librarians. They would browse by the other tables (which were mostly booths from various book publishing companies) but literally mobbed our Tolkien table! The librarians didn't just walk by and glance at our books, they wanted to stop and talk about the impact of the books and the movies.

The librarians love what The Lord of the Rings movies have done to encourage reading. The movies may not be in the theaters any more, but the effects are still resonating. Kids at every age group saw the movies and now want to read the books. And when they've finished The Lord of the Rings, they ask the librarians for more books by Tolkien about Middle-earth. And when the students have read every book in their library by Tolkien, they ask the librarians to recommend other books that are like The Lord of the Rings. So there is this huge ripple effect being seen that is getting kids to read who have never wanted to read before and broadening the horizons of those who were readers.

The story was the same for library after library. The students loved The Lord of the Rings and were constantly checking the books out and looking for other books on Middle-earth. Most libraries only had one or two copies of The Lord of the Rings and those copies were typically worn and battered from so much use. Most librarians were familiar with The Hobbit, but didn't realize there were so many other books written by Tolkien or about Middle-earth. After seeing and looking through the books we had displayed, librarian after librarian said they would love to add more of the additional books to their library. They would pick up various books and speak of how much the kids in their library would love this book or that book.

Unfortunately, the budgets for most of the libraries was extremely limited. Especially for those libraries located in small towns and communities. After speaking with so many enthusiastic librarians, we here at Skies of Rohan, have vowed to find a way to double the number of books we donate to school libraries over the coming school year. It would be a wonderful thing if other smials and branches of The Tolkien Society could find a way to adopt a local library and see if they could use another copy of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit or one of the many other wonderful books about Middle-earth.

Patty Howerton

Skies of Rohan - the Idaho and Montana Tolkien Society