The Hobbit (novel)

Before I had a cover or pages filled with words, I was just a whisper of an idea. I was a magical thought waiting to be told, growing in the mind of a kind professor. I was a feeling of a grand adventure, bubbling with grumpy, treasure-loving dragons, a whole company of singing dwarves, and a very small, brave hero who just wanted to enjoy his breakfast. My creator was a brilliant man named J.R.R. Tolkien. One day, around the year 1930, he was looking at a blank piece of paper when a surprising sentence popped right into his head. He quickly scribbled it down, and that was my very first breath. From that one little line, a whole world started to grow, a world of magic, friendship, and courage. Do you know who I am now? I am the book called The Hobbit.

My creator, Professor Tolkien, was a very busy man. He taught at a famous school called Oxford University in England, where he studied old languages and stories. But even with all his work, he made time for me. He wrote my story bit by bit, telling it aloud to his own children as a bedtime story. They were my very first audience. He didn't just write my words; he brought my whole world to life. He drew beautiful, detailed maps of the place where my story happens, a land called Middle-earth, with its lonely mountains and dark forests. He even drew pictures of my characters, like the wise wizard Gandalf and the scary but magnificent dragon, Smaug, sleeping on his giant pile of gold. For a long time, I was a secret story just for his family. Then, one day, he shared me with a friend who insisted I was too good to keep hidden. That friend told a book publisher about me. The publisher, a man named Stanley Unwin, wasn't sure if other children would like my story of dwarves and goblins. So, he did something very clever. He asked his own son, a ten-year-old boy named Rayner, to read me. Rayner thought my adventure was thrilling and exciting. He wrote a little report that said any child would love to read about Bilbo's journey, and that was all the publisher needed to hear to decide to share me with the world.

Finally, my big day arrived. You could call it my birthday. On September 21st, 1937, I was published as a real book for the very first time. I had a beautiful cover with mountains and a dragon flying in the sky, which my creator, Professor Tolkien, designed himself. I was so excited. Soon, children and families were opening my pages and traveling with my hero, a little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. They went with him from his cozy hobbit-hole, through scary forests, and all the way to a lonely mountain to face a dragon. People loved my adventure so much that they wanted more stories about Middle-earth. This inspired my creator to write even bigger, more epic tales, which became The Lord of the Rings. For many years, I have been teaching readers an important lesson: that you don't have to be big and strong to be a hero. Even the smallest, quietest person can be brave and change the world. I hope that when you read my story, you feel inspired to find the magic in your own great adventures.