Phyllis Thompson first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s quintessential fantasy novel “The Hobbit,” or “There and Back Again” when she was a child while sitting under a giant tree in the her yard.
“What I loved about it then is really the same thing that keeps me coming back to children’s literature now, and that’s the journey. It was about a journey and it was very much about safe places and danger zones and very much about a battle between good and evil. It’s very much a story about finding one’s identity, finding out who one really is and growing up,” she said.
“The Hobbit” was published in 1937. It’s the precursor to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and tells the story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who goes on a grand adventure involving dwarves, goblins, wizards, a magic ring and a dragon called Smaug.
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