Great illustrated version of "The Hobbit?"

July 16, 2013 1:15 PM

My 11 year-old nephew has "The Hobbit" as one of his summer reading books. I'd like to find him an illustrated copy.

Not a graphic novel, but the full text with pictures (Unless you really love the comic.)

Hard copy only please, he's not e-booked yet.

posted by Marky to Shopping (6 answers total)

The Hobbit is interspersed with the occasional black-and-white illustration, so most any copy would do.
posted by Tanizaki at 1:24 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the original with Tolkien's own illustrations is absolutely wonderful (although do try to find a version that has some colour illustrations, as they are stunning).
posted by AmandaA at 1:30 PM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

I have this edition (The Annotated Hobbit edited by Douglas A. Anderson) which is about half text and half footnotes, and also includes illustrations from many, many different editions of The Hobbit from all over the world, including color plates of Tolkien's original illustrations. I love it. You'd probably want to have him skip the footnotes at this point in his life though as they're a bit dry. But I've had my edition since I was about 12.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:41 PM on July 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

I think it was this version (hard to get, maybe?) that enthralled me as a 4th grader. We had gone to the library on our once a week library trip, I, having become intrigued by King Arthur which lead me to his knights and then to dragons and a search of the catalog for dragons put forward the name of a book called "The Hobbit." I wasn't very aware of Tolkien at the time and picked up the larger illustrated book and then climbed into an empty book shelf (it was a new library with vacant shelving waiting future inhabitants) and began to read. When I looked up, the library was empty and at least 45 minutes to an hour had passed. My teacher and the class had returned to the classroom without me (and without noticing my absence, go figure). I hastily checked out the book and ran back to class and so there began a love for Tolkien that goes back to the early days of my youth.
posted by Atreides at 2:32 PM on July 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

This one is hard to find but has great Rankin Bass Illustrations that are pulled fom the animated version of the movie.

Most good libraries had a copy in the 80's, it's out of print and hard to find now
posted by bobdow at 2:44 PM on July 16, 2013

There's a small hardback edition out right now with all of Tolkein's original illustrations included as color plates, as well as Tolkein's original cover art, which is entrancing. It'd make a wonderful present. Available at Barnes and Noble.
posted by ostro at 6:47 AM on July 17, 2013