Can children appreciate The Lord of the Rings?

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

reading Lindil's post about how she (he?)

Scratch 'she' there. Lindil means something in Elvish, although you'd have to look it up to see what. Or ask him.

I read the Hobbit at age ten I think, and Lord of the Rings at thirteen. I s'pose thirteen isn't really still a child though. Ten is, but the Hobbit is less complex. The first time I read LotR I didn't understand it, I'm afraid, and the second time; but the third time I'd read the appendixes and sil so I knew all about Gondor and Sauron and the Elves and Numenor. Without that background, Lord of the Rings is half the book it is with it, and I don't think sil would appeal much to children, nor would they understand it. The appendixes are not so bad though.
I think that smart, older children could read LotR well enough with the appendixes. For the full enlightenment sil provides they'd have to wait.