Children of Hurin

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Children of Hurin. Edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

If you are a fan of Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy you'll want to read this book. With complex characters and a complicated moral world in which leaders (elves, men, dwarves...) struggle with the question of whether to act defensively or offensively against a great threat, this is an interesting, highly readable, and entertaining epic. It also features a fire breathing, though not undefeatable, dragon. For Tolkien fans, it will increase your knowledge of the first age of Middle Earth (while causing you to wonder how they ever made it to the third age...). As with the Silmarillion, we have Tolkien's son Christopher to thank for creating this book out of the unpublished writings of Tolkien. Beautifully illustrated by Alan Lee.

Not yet at the Library ... but soon.