I read The Hobbit when I was eight, and LOTR when I was nine. And every year after that.
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Nobody else barricaded themselves in their room and refused to come out for anything but food and other necessities until they completed all three plus appendices?
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Well, the first time I read it, I basically spent the whole summer in my room reading... so if that counts....
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Younger readers will not appriciate the beautiful works of LOTR, I did not understand it.
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No, I didn't understand it, in the sense that I understand it now, when I first read it. There was much that I missed. But I did derive a great sense of wonder from it. Looking back now, I feel that there is an immense amount to be gained from the Books when you are young and your imagination is at its height that you can never totally recapture as an adult reader, however greater your understanding is in other ways.
So, I don't think it matters at all that a young reader may not appreciate everything about the work - especially when they have many years of re-reading pleasure before them.
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I agre, Saucepan.... I loved it, and I think I got most of it, but every time I read it again, I pick up more.... Altogether quite a pleasant arrangement.
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Not to mention that a lot of kids might get choked up on the style Tolkien has.
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Now, I don't want to sound arrogant here, but it seems to me that a lot of us who love and really "get" Tolkien are the intelligent ones. It's the so-called "smart kids" who can read and enjoy LOTR, whereas the others get bored and quit (I saw this happen to two boys in my sixth grade). I think young kids reading LOTR is great, as long as they enjoy it. I for one wasn't scared by it.... well, maybe a little bit.... okay, okay, I admit, some things still scare me, but the scary parts are scary by necessity. And I have problems with Shelob because I'm rather arachnophobic.
Anyway, back to the point, miellien, I think that as long as your son wants to read the Hobbit and LOTR, he should go for it.